We use them daily, and the action barely registers in our minds. They help us get our point across in a conversation, allow others to
understand our mood, and keep time references under control in our spoken and written words. I'm talking about those single-syllable
words known as helping verbs. They are also known as auxiliary or modal verbs, but I like to think of them as "Grammar's Little Helpers."
When a sentence has more than one verb, one is the principal and the other is the auxiliary—the helper. In my mind, it is an honor to
be a helper. When I was little, my father was an auxiliary police officer. That meant he "helped" the full-time officers do various
aspects of their jobs, such as directing traffic and patrolling at night. My father's example of helping has stuck with me through the
years. Helping others has become part of my life. Any word that helps another word do its job better is okay in my book!
What exactly are helping verbs? As mentioned, they are verbs that help the main, or principal, verb. The most common of Grammar's Little
Helpers are:
- Be
- Must
- Ought
- Can / Could
- Shall / Should
- Will / Would
- May / Might
- Have / Has / Had
- Do / Does / Did / Done
These verbs are highly irregular. As stand alone verbs, they don't make much sense unless you know what is being expressed. Consider the
sentence, "I can!" I can… what? Something is implied, but we don't know what. When we read the preceding sentence, we get a better
understanding of what's going on. "Can you bake a cake? I can!"
Let's look at that preceding sentence again: "Can you bake a cake?" If we remove the helping verb "can," the tone of the question
changes from innocent to sarcastic. "Can" helps the reader to understand the mood of the question. That can be quite important in our
writing. If a reader misinterprets our mood they will not understand the heart of our words, and they may not finish reading. If that
happens, we will lose readers and eventually income.
Did you catch the helping verbs in that last paragraph? Since I was speculating about something that was yet to happen, I used the
helping verb "will" to refer to that possible future event (losing readers and income). It's just as easy to show past events with
helping verbs too: "He has lost readers." Without the help of the word "has," the sentence changes to a more current time frame. With
the help of "has," it shows the action in the past.
Would you like more examples of how these little words help? Try taking them out of the following sentences and you'll see just how
much 'work' they do!
Correct: "You might write the next best-seller."
Incorrect: "You write the next best-seller."
Correct: "I must leave now."
Incorrect: "I leave now."
Correct: "What do you see?"
Incorrect: "What you see?"
Correct: "Shall I call for pizza?"
Incorrect: "I call for pizza?"
Without the helping verbs, they are fragmented—like the improper sentences my children used as toddlers. Just as adults help children
learn to speak properly, helping verbs help sentences to read properly.
Don't be shy about using Grammar's Little Helpers. They will help you form the voice, tense, and mood within your work. I don't know
about you, but I can use all the help I can get!
About The Author:
Kelly Huckaby is The HOME Writer, a freelance writer and web
designer who lives with her husband and five homeschooled children in Oklahoma. Her work has appeared in Cross & Quill,
Homeschooling Horizons and various homeschooling newsletters across the USA and Canada as well as many online magazines.
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