Auxiliary verbs are added to main verbs to make them work in other forms, such as questions, negatives, and other times.

Female Asian learner studying in a library

There are also different types of auxiliary verbs, including modal auxiliaries.

 

Example
‘do', ‘have' and ‘be' are examples of auxiliary verbs.

In the classroom
Drilling or matching activities are useful activities to practise the use of auxiliary verbs in questions, short answers, negatives and tags, as learners need to make mechanical changes to structures.

For example
T: I have a new car.
Ls: Do you?

T: You like fish...
L: Don't you?

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