practical english

Question

Which of the following is an example of a helping verb? a) give b) appear c) went d) have

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I must disagree with Danielle F. in that one of the main uses of the verb have is as what is traditionally called a "helping verb," also known as an "auxiliary" or an "auxiliary verb" (the verb be is also used as a helping verb in most of its occurrences in the language).

 

Danielle's definition of a helping verb as a verb "that is paired with another verb to modify the meaning" and as one that "modifies the tense of the sentence" is accurate, but I point out that even in these cases have will not be the main verb of the sentence but will instead be (an) "auxiliary" to the main verb. For example, the use of the third person present tense of have in My dad has fished signals that the main verb is in the present perfect tense, indicating that the action of the main verb fish happened at some unspecified time in the relatively recent past, just as the use of the past tense of have in My dad had fished signals the main verb is now in the past perfect tense, indicating the the action of the main verb happened at some unspecified time in the past before another past event used a reference point (e.g., My dad had fished in this lake before it became polluted).

The helping verb have can also enter into other tenses, aspects and voices of main verbs, e.g., My dad has been fishing there for an hour and The carp have been fished there to near extinction.

 

I would also argue that in My dad went fishing, went is not a helping verb but rather a main verb followed by the -ing form of another verb as a complement, not as a main verb in itself. Note that we can actually bring in another helping verb to modify the tense of went, e.g., My dad has gone finishing and My dad is going fishing (and note further that fishing doesn't change form even though both sentences are in different times, which normally in English require different verb tenses).

Answer 2

A helping verb is one that is paired with another verb to modify the meaning (sort of like an adverb is an adjective that modifies a verb).

 

The only word here that could be paired with another verb to still make sense is "went," for example, "My dad went fishing."

 

When went is used as a helping verb, it modifies the tense of the sentence.

 

Let me know if you have more questions! I hope this helped.