Ressti
Ayu N
1A213502
4EA18
Helping and Modal Auxiliary Verbs
Helping verbs or auxiliary verbs such as will, shall, may, might, can,
could, must, ought to, should, would, used to, need are used in conjunction
with main verbs to express shades of time and mood. The combination of
helping verbs with main verbs creates what are called verb phrases or verb
strings. In the following sentence, "will have been" are helping
or auxiliary verbs and "studying" is the main verb; the whole verb
string is underlined:
- As
of next August, I will have been studying chemistry for ten years.
Shall, will and forms of have, do and be combine with main verbs
to indicate time and voice. As auxiliaries, the verbs be, have and do
can change form to indicate changes in subject and time.
- I
shall go now.
- He
had won the election.
- They
did write that novel together.
- I
am going now.
- He
was winning the election.
- They
have been writing that novel for a long time.
Uses
of Shall and Will and Should
In England, shall
is used to express the simple future for first person I and we,
as in "Shall we meet by the river?" Will would be used in the
simple future for all other persons. Using will in the first person
would express determination on the part of the speaker, as in "We will
finish this project by tonight, by golly!" Using shall in second
and third persons would indicate some kind of promise about the subject, as in
"This shall be revealed to you in good time." This usage is certainly
acceptable in the U.S., although shall is used far less frequently. The
distinction between the two is often obscured by the contraction 'll,
which is the same for both verbs.
In the United
States, we seldom use shall for anything other than polite questions
(suggesting an element of permission) in the first-person:
- "Shall
we go now?"
- "Shall
I call a doctor for you?"
(In
the second sentence, many writers would use should instead, although should
is somewhat more tentative than shall.) In the U.S., to express the
future tense, the verb will is used in all other cases.
Shall is often used in formal situations (legal or legalistic documents,
minutes to meetings, etc.) to express obligation, even with third-person
and second-person constructions:
- The
board of directors shall be responsible for payment to stockholders.
- The
college president shall report financial shortfalls to the executive
director each semester."
Should is usually replaced, nowadays, by would. It is still used,
however, to mean "ought to" as in
- You
really shouldn't do that.
- If
you think that was amazing, you should have seen it last night.
Uses
of Do, Does and Did
In the simple
present tense, do will function as an auxiliary to express the
negative and to ask questions. (Does, however, is substituted for
third-person, singular subjects in the present tense. The past tense did
works with all persons, singular and plural.)
- I
don't study at night.
- She
doesn't work here anymore.
- Do
you attend this school?
- Does
he work here?
These
verbs also work as "short answers," with the main verb omitted.
- Does
she work here? No, she doesn't
work here.
With
"yes-no" questions, the form of do goes in front of the
subject and the main verb comes after the subject:
- Did
your grandmother know Truman?
- Do
wildflowers grow in your back yard?
Forms
of do are useful in expressing similarity and differences in
conjunction with so and neither.
- My
wife hates spinach and so does my son.
- My
wife doesn't like spinach; neither do I.
Do is also helpful because it means you don't have to repeat the verb:
- Larry
excelled in language studies; so did his brother.
- Raoul
studies as hard as his sister does.
The
so-called emphatic do has many uses in English.
- To
add emphasis to an entire sentence: "He does like spinach. He
really does!"
- To
add emphasis to an imperative: "Do come in." (actually
softens the command)
- To
add emphasis to a frequency adverb: "He never did understand
his father." "She always does manage to hurt her mother's
feelings."
- To
contradict a negative statement: "You didn't do your homework, did
you?" "Oh, but I did finish it."
- To
ask a clarifying question about a previous negative statement:
"Ridwell didn't take the tools." "Then who did take
the tools?"
- To
indicate a strong concession: "Although the Clintons denied any
wrong-doing, they did return some of the gifts."
In
the absence of other modal auxiliaries, a form of do is used in question
and negative constructions known as the get passive:
- Did
Rinaldo get selected by the committee?
- The
audience didn't get riled up by the politician.
Uses
of Have, Has and Had
Forms of the verb to
have are used to create tenses known as the present perfect and past
perfect. The perfect tenses indicate that something has happened in the
past; the present perfect indicating that something happened and might be
continuing to happen, the past perfect indicating that something happened prior
to something else happening. (That sounds worse than it really is!) See the
section on Verb Tenses
in the Active Voice for further explanation; also review
material in the Directory of
English Tenses.
To
have is also in combination with other modal verbs
to express probability and possibility in the past.
- As
an affirmative statement, to have can express how certain you are
that something happened (when combined with an appropriate modal + have
+ a past participle): "Georgia must have left already."
"Clinton might have known about the gifts." "They may have
voted already."
- As
a negative statement, a modal is combined with not + have +
a past participle to express how certain you are that something did not
happen: "Clinton might not have known about the gifts." "I
may not have been there at the time of the crime."
- To
ask about possibility or probability in the past, a modal is combined with
the subject + have + past participle: "Could Clinton have
known about the gifts?"
- For
short answers, a modal is combined with have: "Did Clinton
know about this?" "I don't know. He may have." "The
evidence is pretty positive. He must have."
To
have (sometimes combined with to get) is
used to express a logical inference:
- It's
been raining all week; the basement has to be flooded by now.
- He
hit his head on the doorway. He has got to be over seven feet tall!
Have is often combined with an infinitive to form an auxiliary whose
meaning is similar to "must."
- I
have to have a car like that!
- She
has to pay her own tuition at college.
- He
has to have been the first student to try that.
Modal
Auxiliaries
Other helping
verbs, called modal auxiliaries or modals, such as can, could,
may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, and would, do not
change form for different subjects. For instance, try substituting any of these
modal auxiliaries for can with any of the subjects listed below.
There is also a separate section on the
Modal Auxiliaries,
which divides these verbs into their various meanings of necessity, advice,
ability, expectation, permission, possibility, etc., and provides sample
sentences in various tenses. See the section on Conditional Verb Forms
for help with the modal auxiliary would. The shades of meaning among
modal auxiliaries are multifarious and complex. Most
English-as-a-Second-Language textbooks will contain at least one chapter on
their usage. For more advanced students, A University Grammar of English,
by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum, contains an excellent, extensive
analysis of modal auxiliaries.
Uses
of Can and Could
The modal auxiliary can is used
- to
express ability (in the sense of being able to do something or knowing how
to do something):
He can speak Spanish but he can't write it very well. - to
expression permission (in the sense of being allowed or permitted to do
something):
Can I talk to my friends in the library waiting room? (Note that can is less formal than may. Also, some writers will object to the use of can in this context.) - to
express theoretical possibility: American automobile makers can make
better cars if they think there's a profit in it.
The modal auxiliary could is used
- to
express an ability in the past: I could always beat you at tennis when we
were kids.
- to
express past or future permission: Could I bury my cat in your back yard?
- to
express present possibility: We could always spend the afternoon just
sitting around talking.
- to
express possibility or ability in contingent circumstances: If he studied
harder, he could pass this course.
Can
versus May
Whether the
auxiliary verb can can be used to express permission or not — "Can
I leave the room now?" ["I don't know if you can, but you may."]
— depends on the level of formality of your text or situation. As Theodore
Bernstein puts it in The Careful Writer, "a writer who is attentive
to the proprieties will preserve the traditional distinction: can for
ability or power to do something, may for permission to do it.
The question is at
what level can you safely ignore the "proprieties." Merriam-Webster's
Dictionary, tenth edition, says the battle is over and can can be used
in virtually any situation to express or ask for permission. Most authorities,
however, recommend a stricter adherence to the distinction, at least in formal
situations.
Uses of May and Might
Two of the more
troublesome modal auxiliaries are may and might. When used in the
context of granting or seeking permission, might is the past tense of may.
Might is considerably more tentative than may.
- May
I leave class early?
- If
I've finished all my work and I'm really quiet, might I leave early?
In
the context of expressing possibility, may and might are
interchangeable present and future forms and might + have + past
participle is the past form:
- She
might be my advisor next semester.
- She
may be my advisor next semester.
- She
might have advised me not to take biology.
Avoid confusing the
sense of possibility in may with the implication of might, that a
hypothetical situation has not in fact occurred. For instance, let's say
there's been a helicopter crash at the airport. In his initial report, before
all the facts are gathered, a newscaster could say that the pilot "may
have been injured." After we discover that the pilot is in fact all right,
the newscaster can now say that the pilot "might have been
injured" because it is a hypothetical situation that has not occurred.
Another example: a body had been identified after much work by a detective. It
was reported that "without this painstaking work, the body may have
remained unidentified." Since the body was, in fact, identified, might
is clearly called for.
Uses
of Will and Would
In certain contexts,
will and would are virtually interchangeable, but there are
differences. Notice that the contracted form 'll is very frequently used
for will.
Will can be used to express willingness:
- I'll
wash the dishes if you dry.
- We're
going to the movies. Will you join us?
It
can also express intention (especially in the first person):
- I'll
do my exercises later on.
and
prediction:
- specific:
The meeting will be over soon.
- timeless:
Humidity will ruin my hairdo.
- habitual:
The river will overflow its banks every spring.
Would can also be used to express willingness:
- Would
you please take off your hat?
It
can also express insistence (rather rare, and with a strong stress on the word
"would"):
- Now
you've ruined everything. You would act that way.
and
characteristic activity:
- customary:
After work, he would walk to his home in West Hartford.
- typical
(casual): She would cause the whole family to be late, every time.
In
a main clause, would can express a hypothetical meaning:
- My
cocker spaniel would weigh a ton if I let her eat what she wants.
Finally,
would can express a sense of probability:
- I
hear a whistle. That would be the five o'clock train.
Uses
of Used to
The auxiliary verb
construction used to is used to express an action that took place in the
past, perhaps customarily, but now that action no longer customarily takes
place:
- We
used to take long vacation trips with the whole family.
The
spelling of this verb is a problem for some people because the "-ed"
ending quite naturally disappears in speaking: "We yoostoo take long
trips." But it ought not to disappear in writing. There are exceptions,
though. When the auxiliary is combined with another auxiliary, did, the
past tense is carried by the new auxiliary and the "-ed" ending is
dropped. This will often happen in the interrogative:
- Didn't
you use to go jogging every morning before breakfast?
- It
didn't use to be that way.
Used to can also be used to convey the sense of being accustomed to or
familiar with something:
- The
tire factory down the road really stinks, but we're used to it by now.
- I
like these old sneakers; I'm used to them.
