02a.

PRIMARY AUXILIARY AND MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS

Primary auxiliary verbs DO, BE, HAVE

DO

Do is auxiliary as well as lexical verb (What have you been doing today?) The auxiliary do:

1. It assists in forming the negation of all the lexical verbs in the Present Simple and the Past
Simple: (I don’t understand it. He doesn’t understand it. He didn’t see me.)

2. It assists in forming the question of all the lexical verbs in the above two tenses (Do you
understand? Did he see you? Didn’t he see you? When did it happen?)

The question is formed without do if the question word is the subject of the clause and the clause is
positive with interrogative pronouns who, what, which, how many, how much etc. (Who saw you?
What causes this change? How many people help you?) But with question words as objects, do must
be used. (Who did you see? What does this change cause? How many people do you help?)

3. In a positive non-interrogative clause, do can be used to emphasize the lexical verb. (But I did tell
him all.)

4. Do stands for lexical verbs in short answers (Yes, I do.) or is used to avoid the repetition of the
same verb (He left school one year earlier than I did.) or replaces lexical verbs in tag questions (She
works in a lab, doesn’t she?)

HAVE

Both as lexical verb (I have a car = meaning of possession.) and as auxiliary as:

1. Used in the Present Perfect and Past Perfect (He has just come. Had not known about it.) and the
question is formed by means of inversion (Has he come already?)

2. Have + to + infinitive means MUST. (I have to go.)

3. Auxiliary do with have is used with the lexical have if it denotes habitual or repeated actions (Do
you often have headaches? But! Have you got a headache now?) in the meaning of must (Did you
have to wait?) in the construction to have something done (She didn’t have her hair cut.) and often
in the Past Tense (I didn’t have enough money to buy that book.)

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BE

The lexical and auxiliary verb be is unique among English verbs in having eight different forms (be,
am, is, are, will, been, being…).

1. In its lexical meaning (to exist) the verb be is frequently used in there is, there are constructions
(There are such people.)

2. The construction be + present infinitive expresses the modal meaning of necessary or possible
action (Such examples are to be found everywhere. = Takové příklady se najdou všude.)

3. The Past Tense of be + past infinitive expresses an intended action in the past which in fact did
not take place (The conference was to have taken place in January= Měla se konat, ale nekonala se.)

4. Be is used as copula in subject predicates. (He is a dentist. We are ready. I was in the kitchen.)

5. Be as auxiliary verb assists in forming the progressive aspect in continuous tenses and the
passive voice. (What are you laughing at? One of the pictures was damaged.)

Modal auxiliary verbs

Can/Could

1. Ability (He can speak English. I never could play the banjo.)

2. Permission (Can I smoke in here? Could I smoke in here?)

3. Possibility (Anybody can make mistakes. We could go to the concert.)

May/Might (Present Conditional)

1. Permission (You may borrow my car if you like.)

2. Possibility (The road may be blocked. We might go to the concert.)

3. May can express wish (May he live long!)

Shall

1. Intention of the speaker (I shan’t be long. We shall overcome.)

2. Insistence (You shall do as I say. He shall be punished.)

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Should

1. Advice, suggestion (You should do as he says.)

2. Distant possibility (If you should change your mind, please let us know.)

3. 1st person Conditional in BrE (We should love to go abroad if we had the chance.)

4. After certain expressions (It is odd that you should say this to me.)

Will

1. Willingness (He’ll help you if you ask him.)

2. Polite requests (Will you open the window?)

3. Future tenses (I’ll write as soon as I can.)

4. Prediction about a present action with Future Continuous (John will still be reading his paper.
John asi pořád ještě čte.)

5. Prediction about the result of a past action with Future Perfect (The guests will have arrived by
now.)

Would

1. Polite requests (Would you excuse me?)

2. Characteristic activity in the past (Every morning he would go for a long walk = chodíval)

3. Conditional (He would smoke too much if I didn’t stop him.)

4. Probability (That would be his mother. = patrně bude)

Must

1. Obligation (You must be back by 10 o’clock. (In the past: He had to be back by 10 o’clock. ) There
are two negatives (You needn’t be back by 10. You don’t have to be back by 10.)

2. Prohibition (You mustn’t come late.)

3. Logical necessity (There must be a mistake.)

Note! I must go. = I am obliged to go and I want to go. / I have to go. = I’d rather stay here but the
outer circumstances force me to go.

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The probability of the modals

High probability (It must be raining over there. It must have rained over there.)

Low probability (It may be raining over there. It may have rained over there.)

Very low probability (It might be raining over there. It might have rained over there.)

High improbability (It can’t be raining over there. It can’t have rained over there.)

Dare and Need

can be constructed either as modal auxiliaries with bare infinitive or as lexical verbs (odvážit se and
potřebovat) with to-infinitive and with the inflected -s form. (She needn’t rewrite it, need she? Need
she rewrite it? He daren’t ask.)

Semi-modals

Semi-modals are multi-word constructions that function like modal verbs: had better, have to, be
supposed to, be going to (gonna), used to.

Have to

1. Obligation (You have to do it!)

2. Permission (You don’t have to do it.)

Ought to

1. Strong advice, almost obligation (You ought to start at once.) In AmE ought has occasionally the
bare infinitive in negative sentences and questions (You oughtn’t smoke so much.)

Used to

Used to occurs only in the Past Tense to expresses a repeated action in the past (He used to earn a
lot of money. He didn’t use to earn so much as he does now.)