Questions tagged [auxiliary-verbs]
An auxiliary verb modifies the main verb to give more information about the main verb.
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Is it acceptable to consider the use of the progressive form in R-usage as one of the polite expressions?
I have a question about the progressive form in modal and periphrastic modal verbs.
Modal verbs: can (could), may (might), must, should
Periphrastic modal verbs: have to, ought to
Regarding the ...
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Adverbs in the mid-position when there is more than one verb
I am doing a worksheet about adverbs. For adverbs of certainty like 'probably' and 'definitely', it says that they go in the mid-position and it gives this rule: "mid: before main verb; if the ...
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Do auxiliary verbs have a meaning / an intrinsic meaning?
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_auxiliary_verbs):
English auxiliary verbs are a small set of English verbs, which
include the English modal auxiliary verbs and a few others. Although
...
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Is "used" an auxiliary verb in this sentence?
She used to be a varsity athlete.
In a grammar book, the above sentence was listed among sentences containing at least one auxiliary verb. If "used" is indeed the auxiliary verb, can an ...
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Is "don't" a particle of its own?
I noticed an oddity in the sentence Why don't you just do it?: Although I always thought of don't simply as of a short form of do not it seems to me as if this is not the case in this sentence. ...
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...can you say that you won’t and haven’t sold Pegasus to [ellipsis]
Is this kind of elliptical construction used widely?
SHALEV: I’m not gonna talk about specific customer.
LESLEY: But can you say that you won’t and haven’t sold Pegasus to a country that is known to ...
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Why isn't "I had to" contracted to "I'd to" unlike other auxiliary usage of the verb "had"?
We say "I had to leave," but not "I'd to leave." Why? This is also unlike other auxiliary usage of the verb "had" (e.g. in past perfect tense), so the difference is more ...
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Can the second auxiliary be omitted in sentences like "...but she may (have)"?
a. I don’t think she has seen it, but she may (have).
b. This one needs to be repaired; the other already has (been).
Can you omit the second auxiliary? If so, is it more natural to omit it?
These ...
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Static have or dynamic have in "I had the staff do a thorough search" [duplicate]
I need to know if "had" is static or dynamic in the following clause.
I had the staff do a thorough search.
I know that if the verb have is marking possession or obligation, some speakers ...
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When the verb dare is an auxiliary, can it take the preterite form dared?
I need to distinguish the auxiliary dare and the lexical dare. I know that as semi-modals need and dare act similarly. As a modal the verb need can only have present tense forms without the 3rd person ...
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Why isn't this an auxiliary verb? [closed]
THE EXERCISE:
"I told my mother that my thoughts were bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to
anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father should be ...
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Omission of Auxiliaries [closed]
I have heard this sentence, said by somebody:
Okay, let's check your homework. Sentence 1... correct, sentence 2... also correct, sentence 3 correct as well, and sentence 4... correct, too.
Now, I'...
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Who I've sold your cats *are/is* those people [closed]
I have already posted questions about wh-cleft verb agreement, but after having watched all the links you'd graciously provided, I was able to find no answer that'd explain which verb to use in this ...
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What we sold yesterday was/were a cat and oxen [duplicate]
Which is correct in my sentence? No-one really seems to have ever posted such a sophisticated question.
What we sold yesterday was/were a cat and three oxen.
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Sentence start with auxiliary-verb
Only after the journal transaction has been committed in this fashion can the kernel do the real metadata writes at its leisure; should the system crash in the middle, the information needed to safely ...