AUX: auxiliary verbs
An auxiliary verb, as the name suggests, assists the main verb in a sentence. Its primary function is not to convey a semantic meaning but to deliver grammatical or functional details including tense, aspect, mood, number, person, and voice. A defining characteristic of auxiliary verbs is that they do not subcategorize for the subject or other sentence complements.
In Spanish, typical examples of auxiliary verbs include ser and estar “to be” used as copulas, haber for perfect tenses, and modal verbs like poder “can” and deber “must”. However, it’s essential to note that if a verb retains its semantic content, it’s classified as a VERB and not an AUX, as might be the case with coser “to sew”.
Moreover, some verbs, termed semiauxiliars, partake in periphrastic constructions, contributing to the overall meaning of the verb phrase. Despite their supportive role, these semiauxiliars might still be tagged as VERBS due to their maintained semantic contribution.
- Spanish auxiliary verbs (AUX) are:
- ser and estar “to be”, used as copulas
- ser “to be” for the passive (la sentencia fue publicada “the sentence was published”)
- estar “to be” for the progressive (mis hijos están estudiando inglés “my children are studying English”)
- haber “to be/have” for the perfect tenses (ha venido hoy “he came today”)
AUX in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]