EXERCISE 2. IS THE VERB IN THE SENTENCE AN ACTION VERB OR A LINKING VE...

10. Did you feel the energy in that room?

Helping Verbs and Verb Phrases

What Is a Helping Verb?

Sometimes a verb consists of more than one word:

The letters have been mailed.

verb

In have been mailed, mailed is the main verb; have and been are helping verbs.

H.V.

H.V.

M.V.

A main verb may have as many as three helping verbs.

ONE HELPING VERB

: Anne has mailed the letters.

H.V.

M.V.

TWO HELPING VERBS

: The letters have been mailed.

THREE HELPING VERBS

: They should have been mailed earlier.

H.V.

H.V.

H.V.

M.V.

What Is a Verb Phrase?

HELPING VERB

(

S

) +

MAIN VERB

=

VERB PHRASE

has + mailed = has mailed

have been + mailed = have been mailed

should have been + mailed = should have been mailed

Which Verbs Can Be Used as Helping Verbs?

Below is a list of verbs commonly used as helping verbs (note that be, which we stud-

ied earlier as a linking verb, page 14, can also be a helping verb):

be, am, are, is, can, could

was, were, being, been

have, has, had will, would

do, does, did shall, should

may, might must