How to Use Auxiliary Verbs in Conversations

Tell me when it's on. This stuff is weird, man. It's wet.

Hi, James from engVid. Just reading a book. She called it a book. In fact, is it a book?

Why don't we look at helper verbs? Usually when you study auxiliary verbs, you're told

the auxiliary verbs have a function in grammar, and you're given these things like "I am running,"

"I am eating," "Have you gone?" or "Have you eaten?" And you're told that these have

specific meaning. This is true. However, sometimes you can have fun with grammar. In fact, many

students often ask, "Why is it Canadians speak like this? Why don't they say, 'I haven't

had dinner yet'?" Right? "Why don't they say, 'I haven't'?" It seems wrong because at school

they're taught one thing, and then they see the Canadians breaking the rules. Well, I'm

going to show you two ways today that auxiliary verbs are used that you may not have thought

of, but are valid. Completely valid. I'll give you an example. Let's first look at the

general rules. I'm not going to go deeply into it, but what most of you know. If you

need more, of course you're on engVid, so you know, go check out the videos. There are

going to be things on the present perfect, the past, and the future. Okay?

So, what are some examples of auxiliary verbs? Well, you've seen them. The verb "to be."

"Be" is "am" and "are." They're auxiliary verbs. "I am happy." But usually when you say an

auxiliary, it's a helper verb, meaning there are two verbs. So, "I am happy" is just the

verb "to be" doing its job. When it's an auxiliary, it might say, "I am going to the store." "Am"

plus "going" gives you the idea of movement. So, in this case, "ing" verb "to be" equals

action. So, it helps to tell us action is happening now, as we call it the present continuous.

How about here? We also use auxiliary verbs to tell us time. In English, we only really

have two different times, right? We have the past, which is with the past participle or

a past ending, and then we have the present with "ing," and how we make future is with

an auxiliary verb. So, let's go. You'll notice here, the past "did." So, we use "I did go"

or "It did work." We put them together, two verbs, "It did work." We use it for emphasis

and to tell us past, right? Now, future, we use "will." We use this one modal type verb

and we add it to another verb, like "I will go," "I will be," and it tells me future.

And then, finally, we use the perfect "have" to show there's a connection. "I have gone,"

"I will have been." There's a connection with the past to some other time, past, present

or future. General auxiliary verb, helping to give us an idea of time and action. So,

what do I have to teach you? You know this already. Fun stuff. Now, "I'm lazy." "I don't

know about you, but I don't use a tissue. I pick my nose." Faster, quicker. I'm joking.

Don't do that. It's disgusting. So, sometimes when people ask me a question, I don't want

to repeat everything. You're often taught in English, the answer to the question is

in the question. "Do you like ice cream?" "Yes, I do like ice cream." Reverse it, right?

Cool. I don't want to do that. So, I simply say, "I do." Huh? Yeah. I use an auxiliary

verb plus a subject. It's done. It's a short answer. You see it in many grammar books.

You didn't know why? Well, this tells me this is true. I am using part of the sentence,

so I'm just saying, "I have," and you know what the rest is, so I don't have to say this.

I know for myself as an English teacher, I always tell students to say the whole sentence,

but that's when they're beginning, so they get to understand the structure, but Canadians,

Americans, Brits don't do this, so you don't have to once you understand, right? So, "Have

you had dinner?" "Yes, I have." I'm affirming I've had dinner, and I just have to say, "What

am I saying yes to?" "Had dinner." That's it. Cool. Like that? You can do that for anything.

"Do you like ice cream?" "Yes," affirmation. "I do." "I do like ice cream." You don't need

to say the whole sentence. Cool? Great. How about we look at another example? Here's a

word for you, "feign." "Feign" is to pretend. If you feign interest in something, you pretend

to be interested, or you might be interested, and you want to show you're polite, you have

manners. So, how we do this, again, we use an auxiliary verb, right? We add the auxiliary

verb, and, well, for instance, why don't we do this? We'll use a pronoun. One of my favorite

programs is Star Trek. Oh, no. Before we get that one, that's good, so don't look yet.

But you can say, "Is Tom coming to the party?" No. Let's just say, "Josh and Rachel are getting

married." And you can say, "Are they?" Wow, that's so cool. Now, you could say, "That's

so cool," or, "That's nice," and it's matter of fact. Matter of fact can be what we say,

"Are they?" or just, "Hm." But by saying, "Are they?" it's, "I am so interested in this."

So a lot of times, we take a pronoun, plus we take the auxiliary verb, and verb to be

is an auxiliary verb. We add them together and put them at the beginning of a statement

we're going to say, and it shows interest, like, "I'm very interested in what you have

to say." So in this case, "Captain Kirk is gay, gay, gay, gay." Please, Star Trek people,

don't send me e-mails, okay? We know who it is. And in fact, you Star Trek people who

are learning English can go, "He is, dun-dun-dun-dun, shock and surprise and polite interest. He

is, I thought it was Sulu who was gay." Sorry, Sulu, I just outed you. Okay? By the way,

there is nothing wrong with that. It's not to be anything about homosexuals, just the

idea you can show interest. People who like Star Trek might be surprised, but they go,

"He is, I'm interested, and I want to show a polite interest." So there you go. You have

just learned to show polite interest, and also answer questions quickly without repeating

yourself, and elevated yourself from a beginner position in grammar to a higher one, and much

more natural speech. Hope you enjoyed this lesson, and you can go to, well, do you know

the address? Yes, I do. See? You just used it. Yes, I do. You don't have to say, "Yes,

I do know the address." But let's just help you. You can go to www.engvid.com. You can

pick up more of these lessons, do the quizzes, and have some fun on our channel. Are you?

You are happy you learned from us. Good. Quick review. You know the general ones, action

and time, and now you know two new ones, short answers and polite interest. See you.