auxiliary verbs - What are the following words called: Am, Is, Are, Was, Were, Be, Being, Been?



Am, Is, Are, Was, Were, Be, Being, Been



What are the above words called? I think someone called them auxiliary verbs.


Edit: When I learned them, my curriculum called them "State of Being verbs" or just "Being verbs".



Answer



The words you cited are all forms of the verb “be”, which is also known as a copula or linking verb.


The term auxiliary verb applies to verbs, such as forms of be, have, and do, that conjoin with another verb to add syntactic or semantic information, such as grammatical aspects like the progressive aspect or perfective aspect:



  • progressive aspect: be + present participle (e.g. am walking)

  • perfective aspect: have + past participle (e.g. have walked)


Verbs such as will and shall combine to indicate future tense or conditional tense.


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