DIFFERENT USES OF AUXILIARY OR HELPING VERBS: TO BE, TO DO, TO HAVE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO AUXILIARY VERBS (ALSO KNOWN AS "HELPING VERBS"):


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OTHER USES OF HELPING VERBS AS PRIMARY AUXILIARIES (TAKING VERB TO DO AS AN EXAMPLE):

Read the following conversation and pay attention to the auxiliary verb “did“:

John: (1)Did you watch last night’s game?

Adam: Yeah! I (2)did. I bet you liked Rooney’s goal, (3)didn’t you?

John: Oh, yes! It was great! But I actually preferred Van Persie’s goal.

Adam:(4)Did you? But overall he (5)didn’t play well, (6)did he?

John: No, not really. But he (7)did score a great goal, right?

Adam:Yeah, I guess so. But so (8)did Rooney, in my opinion.

Now, let’s see the uses of “did” in each case (1 – 8):

(1) Question form: to ask questions: Did you do…?

(2) Short answer: to avoid repeating the main verb: Yes, I did. / No, I didn’t.

(3) Question tag: asking for clarification or approval, at the end of a statement: didn’t you?

(4) Echo questions: expressing certain surprise at something said by someone else: did you?

(5) Negative form: to negate a verb: didn’t play well.

(6) Question tag: same as (3), but in positive form: did he?

(7) Emphasising auxiliary: to emphasise that something happened or was so: he did score a great goal.

(8) Agreement or similarity: to express agreement or similarity with a previous statement or idea: so did Rooney.

So these 7/8 points summarise the main uses of auxiliary verbs. These very same uses apply to other auxiliaries such as have, am/is/are, was/were, modal verbs, etc.

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QUESTION TAGS

Question tags

Question tags are the short questions that we put on the end of sentences – particularly in spoken English. There are lots of different question tags but the rules are not difficult to learn.

Positive/negative

If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative ….

• He’s a doctor, isn’t he?
• You work in a bank, don’t you?

... and if the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive.

• You haven’t met him, have you?
• She isn’t coming, is she?

With auxiliary verbs

The question tag uses the same verb as the main part of the sentence. If this is an auxiliary verb (‘have’, ‘be’) then the question tag is made with the auxiliary verb.

• They’ve gone away for a few days, haven’t they?
• They weren’t here, were they?
• He had met him before, hadn’t he?
• This isn’t working, is it?

Without auxiliary verbs

If the main part of the sentence doesn’t have an auxiliary verb, the question tag uses an appropriate form of ‘do’.

• I said that, didn’t I?
• You don’t recognise me, do you?
• She eats meat, doesn’t she?

With modal verbs

If there is a modal verb in the main part of the sentence the question tag uses the same modal verb.

• They couldn’t hear me, could they?
• You won’t tell anyone, will you?

With ‘I am’

Be careful with question tags with sentences that start ‘I am’. The question tag for ‘I am’ is ‘aren’t I?’

• I’m the fastest, aren’t I?

Intonation

Question tags can either be ‘real’ questions where you want to know the answer or simply asking for agreement when we already know the answer.

If the question tag is a real question we use rising intonation. Our tone of voice rises.

If we already know the answer we use falling intonation. Our tone of voice falls.

ENCONTRADO EN: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org