Is the word was a helping verb

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

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Asked by: Alfonzo Bode

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A helping verb (also called an «auxiliary verb») is a verb that is used together with the main verb of the sentence to express the action. The main helping verbs are: be, am, is, are, was, were, do, did, have, has, had.

Is was a linking verb?

Unlike action verbs, there is only a very short list of words that are true linking verbs. Interestingly these words are always linking verbs. Here is the list: Be, am, is, are, was, were, has been, any other form of the verb “be”, become, and seem.

Was were use helping verb?

A helping verb (also known as an auxiliary verb) is used with a main verb to help express the main verb’s tense, mood, or voice. The main helping verbs are «to be,» «to have,» and «to do.» They appear in the following forms: To Be: am, is, are, was, were, being, been, will be. To Have: has, have, had, having, will have.

How do you tell if a verb is action linking or helping?

One way to determine if the verb is functioning as an action verb or a linking verb is to substitute the word “is” for the verb in question. If the sentence still makes sense, then it is probably a linking verb. If the sentence would not make sense with the word “is,” then it is probably an action verb in the sentence.

What are the 20 linking verbs?

Here is the list: Be, am, is, are, was, were, has been, any other form of the verb “be”, become, and seem. There are other verbs that can be both linking verbs and action verbs. All of the sense verbs; look, smell, touch, appear, sound, taste, and feel can be linking verbs.

16 related questions found

Helping verbs are used in a verb phrase (that is, with a second verb) to show tense or form a question or a negative.

Helping verbs are always followed by a second verb, and they show the perfect verb tenses, continuous/progressive verb tenses, and passive voice.

To show tense

The sentence pattern will be:

1. Subject (noun, pronoun, or noun phrase)
2. Helping verb
3. Verb
4. The rest of the sentence (adj, adv, noun, prepositional phrase, etc.)

To form a question

The sentence structure will be:

1. Helping verb
2. Subject (noun, pronoun, or noun phrase)
3. Verb
4. The rest of the sentence (adj, adv, noun, prepositional phrase, etc.)

Categories

There are three categories for helping verbs: “Do/be/have”, one-word modals, and two-word modals.

Do/Be/Have

These help other verbs make questions, negatives, and some verb tenses. Remember: Do, be, and have are helping verbs only when they are used with a second verb.

Do is a helping verb when it is used to indicate questions, negatives, and emphasis.

Be is a helping verb when it is used to form the continuous/progressive tense or to show passive voice.

HAVE is a helping verb when it is used to show the perfect verb tenses, or used to form a question.

These sentences are in question form. Do/Does/Did are used as helping verbs with Have to form these questions.

• Do you have a car?
• Does he have a car?
• Did he have a car before?

Emphasis with Do

To respond to a statement like, “You don’t want to go to the park,” you may want to reply with great emphasis. Situations like that are perfect for using Do/Does/Did to indicate you really mean something.

In these sentences, Do/Does/Did are used with the verb Want.

• I do want to go to the park.
• He does want to go to the park.
• They really did want to go to the park.

Negatives with Do

Do/Does/Did are used as helping verbs and the word Not to form a negative. In these sentences, they again are used with Want.

• I do not want to go to the zoo.
• He does not want to go to the zoo.
• They did not want to go to the zoo.

Continuous tense with Be

These sentences use Am/Was/Will Be (forms of the verb Be) to form the continuous verb tense with the verb Helping.

• I am helping Diane right now.
• I was helping Diane when George paged me.
• I will be helping Diane when George comes home.

Passive voice with Be

These sentences use Is/Was/Will Be with the verb Canceled to show passive voice.

• The picnic is being canceled because of rain.
• The picnic was canceled because of rain.
• The picnic will be canceled because of rain.

Perfect tense with Have

These sentences use Have/Had with the verb Studied to show the perfect tense.

• I have studied French for two years.
• I had studied French for two years before I went to Paris.
• I will have studied French for three years in August.

Questions with Have

Have is used with the verb Seen to make a question.

• Have you seen that new movie yet?

Modals

Modals are a special kind of helping verb, used to show possibility, probability, and necessity. They:

• Do not show tense
• Do not follow subject/verb agreement
• Do not add an “-s” in the third person singular (he, she, it)
• Are not conjugated

Like other helping verbs, modals are always followed by a second verb. But the second verb follows a different conjugation pattern if a modal is present. The second verb can never add “-s,” “-es,” “-ed,” or “-ing.” It also cannot be in the infinitive form (“to …”) or in the gerund form (“…-ing”).

When using modals, the sentence structure will be:

1. Subject (noun, pronoun, or noun phrase)
2. Modal (should, would, could, may, might, etc.)
3. Verb
4. The rest of the sentence (adj, adv, noun, prepositional phrase, etc.)

The Modal page of this guide includes more information on modals, including sentence examples.

You may have heard of helping verbs, which are also referred to as modal and auxiliary verbs. In this discussion, we’ll review what a helping verb is and how it works with another verb.

What Is a Helping Verb?

A helping verb is a verb that combines with a main verb to form a verb phrase. Sometimes it is also called a verb marker, because it indicates that a verb is to follow.

In a sentence with one main verb in the simple present tense, it’s typically easy to identify the verb by looking for the action word. For example:

Jim walks quickly.

Walks is the action being performed by Jim, so that’s the main verb. But what if we want to express a different time (tense) of Jim’s activity? We need another verb to provide that information. In our example with Jim, let’s tell the reader more about his action by placing it in the present progressive tense to convey that he’s doing it right now:

Jim is walking quickly.

You see we now have two verbs. The main verb is walking. The word is has been added to “help” further describe the main verb. In this case, the helping verb (is) tells of the tense of the action (present progressive). Together, the helping verb and the main verb add clarity and context. If we say only Jim walks, that action can apply to any place and any time. By saying Jim is walking, we know his action is happening in this moment.

With that in mind, let’s change our helping verb for what we want the main verb to communicate. We’ll use a Type 1 conditional sentence with a possible condition and a probable result:

If he sees an ice cream truck at the end of the street, Jim will walk quickly.

The main verb is still walk, but our helping verb is now will to let the reader know the time of the action is in the future.

Three Common Helping Verbs

Once you understand the principle of helping verbs, finding and using them gets much easier. You can also begin to recognize many of their common forms, which can change depending on whether they are indicating a past, present, or future action. They can be singular or plural as well.

Here are some helping-verb varieties you probably use every day:

To be: is, am, are, was, were, will be

To have: have, has, had, will have

To do: do, does, did, will do

Examples
We were shopping at the mall yesterday.

Joan had been unaware of that until you informed her.

Chris will do what is required to make the delivery on time.

Let’s look at a few more examples:

The dog was eating the food in the bowl.

Janine has visited her mother.

If you’re wondering, Robert did rehearse for several weeks before opening night.

Other helping verbs you might see paired with main verbs include would, should, could, shall, may, might, and can.

Pop Quiz

Identify the helping verbs in the following sentences.

1. Christy will be dancing at the wedding.
2. Did you bake that cake on the counter?
3. You have slept longer than usual today.
4. I am flying to Cleveland next month.
5. Bruce was seen by a specialist at the clinic.

Pop Quiz Answers

1. Christy will be dancing at the wedding.
2. Did you bake that cake on the counter?
3. You have slept longer than usual today.
4. I am flying to Cleveland next month.
5. Bruce was seen by a specialist at the clinic.

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Helping verbs (auxiliary verbs) do just what their name implies. They help the main verb in the sentence by telling more about the verb’s tense, mood, and voice. 

Main Verbs, Helping Verbs, & Verb Phrases

There are many, many verbs that can function as main verbs (walk, run, think, say, sleep, seem etc.), but there are only a handful of verbs that can function as helping verbs.

When we put one or more helping/auxiliary verb with a main verb, we get what is called a verb phrase. 

(Every sentence needs to have at least one main verb, but not every sentence needs a helping/auxiliary verb.)

Before we move on, I need to tell you something important. Are you ready? Good! The verbs on that list above can function as helping verbs. That wording is very important because some of those words can also function as main verbs. Let’s look at an example using the word was.

Sometimes, the helping and main verbs are separated by other words. This often happens when we ask questions. With questions, the auxiliary verb tends to come at the beginning of the sentence, and the main verb comes later.

Words like never, not, and the contraction n’t are not part of the verb. They are adverbs.

Psst! Have you ever heard of modal verbs? Modals are a type of helping verb that show the speaker’s attitude about what they are communicating. 

Verb Phrases Act as Verbs

This seems obvious, right? They are made up of verbs, so what else would they be acting as?

The point here is that they are made up of multiple words and all of the words come together to act as one part of speech, a verb. 

The cheesecake might be exploding.

Might be exploding is telling us what the cheesecake is doing. It’s acting as a single unit: a verb.

Did you call Owen?

Did call is asking what you did. It’s acting as a single unit: a verb.

Owen has become a great cook.

Has become is telling us Owen’s state of being. It’s acting as a single unit: a verb.

Sentence diagrams can help us see that verb phrases function as verbs. Sentence diagrams are pictures of sentences that show us how parts of a sentence are related. They make the relationships between words, phrases, and clauses visual.

Verb phrases are diagrammed in the verb slot of the sentence diagram. They go on a horizontal line right after the subject. All of the words in the verb phrase go in the same slot because all of the words are coming together to function as the verb!

Remember that verb phrases are made up of at least one helping verb and a main verb.

Let’s look at an example sentence diagram with an actual sentence. 

Must and have are helping verbs, and jumped is a main verb. These three verbs together form a verb phrase. 

Don’t Get Tricked

There you have it! Now you’re a pro at identifying and understanding helping verbs!