Helping Verbs: Meaning, Types, and Examples

When auxiliary verbs appear in a sentence, they’re paired with the past or present participle form of an action verb to create different verb tenses, particularly the perfect tenses and the progressive tenses.

You can use forms of be to show progressive tenses:

• I am having another piece of pizza.
• Marissa is making dinner for us now.
• They are planning to go out of town.
• I am renting my guesthouse to my neighbor.
• Steve is starting a new personal training business.
• Christopher and Bernadette are moving to Baton Rouge.
• It is raining almost every day.
• We were planning our next vacation.

Forms of have appear in perfect tenses:

• I have grown tomatoes before.
• Who has traveled to Colorado?
• He had asked if he could take that blanket.
• She had stolen the car by then.
• Beth has worked here for a long time.

And you use both be and have in perfect progressive tenses:

• He has been running for over an hour.
• I had been dreaming about you when you called.
• Dave has been working on the task all day.
• The plants will have been growing a month by the time the stakes arrive.

The auxiliary verb do doesn’t set verb tense. Instead, it shows emphasis on the main verb in the sentence, makes the main verb negative, or changes the sentence into a question.

• I do find that show amusing. (Emphasis)
• I do not find that show amusing. (Negative)
• Do you find that show amusing? (Question)