Auxiliary Verbs, a.k.a. “Helping Verbs”

Many of you have expressed frustration over auxiliary verbs. However, they’re not that bad! It’s important to remember that when I say “auxiliary verbs” I am referring to both the primary auxiliaries (do, be, have) and modal auxiliaries (will, should, shall, etc.).

If you’re in class with me, you’ve likely heard my explanation of auxiliary verbs and modal verbs multiple times. For this very reason, here are a few websites where other teachers explain the use of auxiliary verbs:

English Club: A brief explanation of what auxiliary (or “helping”) verbs are

A very thorough university-level explanation of auxiliary verbs. Make sure to do the quiz at the end of the page!

If you want to review what you know about auxiliaries and modals, make sure to check out ego4u’s brief explanation. They have ten different quizzes that you can do.

I hope this helps you! Best of luck with auxiliary verbs and modal verbs. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or simply ask me in class!

If you teach children, here’s a little song to help them learn helping verbs: https://englishwithhelendotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/ec291-helping2bverbs.png