alt="popquiz"/> Change this statement into a question:
Ella meets Larry’s parents today.
Answer: Does Ella meet Larry’s parents today? To form the question, add the helping verb does.
Now change this statement into a negative (opposite).
George gave me help during the grammar test.
Answer: George did not give me help during the grammar test. You form the negative with the helping verb did.
Helping verbs also change the meaning of a sentence by adding a sense of duty, probability, willingness, and so forth. Concentrate on the italicized verbs in these examples. All are add-ons, or helping verbs. The main verbs appear in bold type. Notice how the meaning changes:
Rita may attend the party. Her boss might be there.
(The helping verbs may and might expresses possibility: Rita will go if she’s in a good mood and stay home if she isn’t. Same thing for the boss. May takes on another meaning, too. The same helping verb can express permission: Rita’s father checked out the party and okayed it.)
Rita should attend every official event. She must go.
(The helping verbs should and must mean that attending is a duty or obligation. Even if Rita wants to sit on her sofa and knit socks, she has to attend.)
Rita would stay home if she could do so. She can sleep during the show, though.
(Two helpers appear in the first sentence. The helping verb would shows willingness or preference. The helping verb could makes a statement about ability. In the second sentence, can also refers to ability.)
Would you consider a campaign for president if Lamar must step down?
Answer: Would is a helping verb that adds a sense of possibility to the main verb, consider. Must is a helping verb the implies an obligation. It is attached to the main verb step.
Distinguishing between helping verbs and main verbs isn’t particularly important, as long as you get the whole thing when you’re identifying the verb in a sentence. If you find only part of the verb, you may confuse action verbs with linking verbs. You want to keep these two types of verbs straight when you choose an ending for your sentence, as I explain in “Completing linking-verb sentences correctly” in the previous section.
To decide whether you have an action verb or a linking verb, look at the main verb, not at the helping verbs. If the main verb expresses action, the whole verb is action, even if one of the helpers is a form of to be. For example:
is going has been painted should be strangled
are all action verbs, not linking verbs, because going, painted, and strangled express action.
SHE DONE HIM WRONG
The word done is never a verb all by itself. A true party animal, this verb form insists on being accompanied by helping verbs. In grammarspeak, which you do NOT have to learn, done is a past participle of the verb to do. Naked, shivering, totally alone participles, such as done, never function as verbs. Here are some examples:
WRONG: He done all he could, but the sky fell anyway.
RIGHT: He had done all he could, but the sky fell anyway.
ALSO RIGHT: He did all he could, but the sky fell anyway.
WRONG: She done him wrong.
RIGHT, BUT A BAD SENTENCE: She has done him wrong.
ALSO RIGHT, ALSO A BAD SENTENCE: She did him wrong.
BETTER SENTENCE: What she has done to him is wrong.
ANOTHER OKAY: What she did to him is wrong.
You may blame the fact that so many people create sentences like the first example (He done all he could) on one of the many joys of English grammar. Some verb forms can stand alone or pair with a helping verb. Consider the verb to walk:
I walked twenty miles.
I have walked twenty miles.
These sentences both contain the word walked. It’s a verb in the first example and part of a verb in the second example. Bottom line: Don’t use done by itself as a verb. It’s a combination form only!
Pop the Question: Locating the Verb
A scientific study by a blue-ribbon panel of experts found that 90 percent of all the errors in a sentence occurred because the verb was misidentified. Okay, there was no study. I made it up! But it is true that when you try to crack a sentence, you should always start by identifying the verb. To find the verb, read the sentence and ask two questions:
❯❯ What’s happening?
❯❯ What is? (or, What word is a “giant equal sign”?)
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If you get an answer to the first question, you have an action verb. If you get an answer to the second question, you have a linking verb.
For example, in the sentence
Archie flew around the room and then swooped into his cage for a birdseed snack.
you ask “What’s happening?” and your answer is flew and swooped. Flew and swooped are action verbs.
If you ask, “What is?” you get no answer, because there’s no linking verb in the sentence.
Try another:
Lola’s new tattoo will be larger than her previous fifteen tattoos.
What’s happening? Nothing. You have no action verb. What is? Will be. Will be is a linking verb.
A. Michelle scratched
