How English auxiliary verbs differ from linking verbs

[Joe Carillo]

Most learners of English get to know soon enough that a verb is a word that describes an action, condition, or experience, but not many are able to confidently distinguish main verbs from auxiliary verbs, linking verbs, helping verbs, and modal auxiliaries. Let’s take the opportunity to revisit the five types of English verbs to increase our level of comfort and confidence in using them.

A main or stand-alone verb denotes the action of the subject of a sentence, like the verb “reconciled” in “The squabbling newlyweds reconciled last night” and “flub” in “The stage actress flubbed her lines badly last night.”

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A linking verb, otherwise called a copula or copular verb, doesn’t show any action but simply connects the subject of a sentence to its complement. The most frequently used linking verb is, of course, “be” and its conjugations (“am,” “is,” “are, “was,” and “were”), as in “Filipinos are in shock that most of the country is now in a virtual Covid-19 lockdown.” Other common linking verbs are “appear,” “seem,” “become,” and “feel,” as in “She appears unperturbed by the mandatory quarantine in her community.”

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An auxiliary verb, more commonly called a helping verb, works with a main verb to form its tenses, voice, and modality; to provide a desired emphasis; and to form a question or the negative of the verb. The most often used auxiliary verbs are, as we know, “have,” “has,” and “had”; “be,” “am,” “is,” “was,” “were,” “been,” and “being”; and “do,” “did,” “done,” and “doing.”

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As examples, in the sentence “Their checked-in luggage has been offloaded,” the auxiliary verbs “has” and “been” work with the main verb “offloaded” to form the present perfect tense. In “They did take the loot,” the verb “did” works as an intensifier for the verb “take” to emphasize that the action was, in fact, done; in “He is being fooled,” the auxiliary verb “being” works with the linking verb “is” to form the present progressive passive tense of the main verb “fooled”; and in “She has taken my share of the cake,” the auxiliary verb “has” works with the past participle “taken” to form the present perfect tense of the verb “take.”

To the primary auxiliary verbs we now must add the subclass of auxiliary verbs that, unlike the former, don’t inflect or can’t change form at all. These are the modal auxiliaries, or modals for short. The most common modals are “can,” “could,” “may,” “might,” “must,” “shall,” “should,” “will,” and “would”; less commonly used are “dare,” “need,” and “ought.”

THE UNIVERSE OF LINKING VERBS AND HELPING VERBS
AS STATE OF BEING VERBS

Functionally, a modal works with a main verb to express conditionality, necessity, obligation, ability, or wishful desire; it’s unlike the typical auxiliary verb, which works with the main verb to denote voice, tense, or emphasis. In the sentence “She can speak French fluently,” for instance, the modal “can” works to convey the ability of the subject to speak French fluently. In “She does speak French fluently,” in contrast, the auxiliary verb “do” acts as an intensifier to emphasize the subject’s ability to, in fact, speak French fluently.

We must keep in mind, though, that the three auxiliary verbs “be,” “do,” and “have” can also function as main verbs. For instance, in the sentence “You be the one,” the verb “be” works as a main verb to denote asking someone to assume a certain role; in “She does all the work here,” “does” works as a main verb to denote performing all the work; and in “They have lots of money,” “have” works as a main verb to denote possession of lots of money.

Finally, we must always remember that auxiliary verbs always need a main verb to function; in contrast, linking verbs are stand-alones that don’t need a main verb at all.

(Next week: The difference between “even though” and “even if”)    April 2, 2020                            

This essay, 1,187th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the March 19, 2020 Internet edition of The Manila Times,© 2020 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

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How English auxiliary verbs differ from linking verbs