Lesson 3: THE VERB

The verb of a sentence can be:

one word - He works in an office

two words - He is working in the office

three words - He has been working in the office

or even four words - He must have been working in the office

In the sentences above, work (works and working) is an example of a LEXICAL VERB. Lexical verbs give basic information. Every simple sentence has one lexical verb in it.

In the sentences above, the words between He and work are examples of AUXILIARY VERBS. There are not many auxiliary verbs. They are: do, have, be, can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must.

They are very important because we can use them together with lexical verbs. For example:

[a]:AUXILIARY [l]:LEXICAL

Where [a] shall I [l] meet you?

[a] Is John [l] coming to the party? No, he [a] is not.

He [a] does not [l] like parties, [a] does he?

[a] Have they [l] finished? Yes, they [a] have.

We use auxiliary verbs to:

• make a negative sentence (Lesson 5)
• make a question (Lesson 9)
• give a short answer (Lesson 11)
• make a tag question (Lesson 12)
• make passive sentences (Lesson 43)
• show what we feel about what we are saying (Lesson 27)
• and in continuous and perfect verb formations (Lesson 15)

To learn about do, have, be as auxiliaries, look at Lesson 17.

The other auxiliaries are called MODAL VERBS. You can learn about them in Lesson 27.