English auxiliaries and contractions


In English grammar, certain verb forms are classified as auxiliary verbs. Although definitions vary, as generally conceived an auxiliary lacks inherent semantic meaning but instead modifies the meaning of another verb it accompanies. In English, verb forms are often classed as auxiliary on the basis of certain grammatical properties, particularly as regards their syntax. They also participate in subject–auxiliary inversion and negation by the simple addition of not after them.
Certain auxiliaries have contracted forms, such as -'d for had or would and -'ll for will or shall. There are also many contractions formed from the negation of auxiliary verbs, all of which end in -n't. These contractions can participate in inversion as a unit, and thus in a certain sense can be regarded as auxiliary verb forms in their own right.
For details about modal auxiliaries, see English modal verbs.

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliaries as helping verbs

An auxiliary is most generally understood as a verb that "helps" another verb by adding grammatical information to it. On this basis, English auxiliaries include:
The following are examples of sentences containing the above types of auxiliary verbs:
However, the above understanding of auxiliaries is not the only one in the literature, particularly in the case of forms of the verb be, which may be called auxiliary even when not accompanying another verb. Other approaches to defining auxiliary verbs are described below.

Auxiliaries as verbs with special grammatical behavior

A group of English verbs with certain special grammatical properties distinguishes them from other verbs. This group consists mainly of verbs that are auxiliaries in the above sense – verbs that add purely grammatical meaning to other verbs – and thus some authors use the term "auxiliary verb" to denote precisely the verbs in this group. However, not all enumerations of English auxiliary verbs correspond exactly to the group of verbs having these grammatical properties. This group of verbs may also be referred to by other names, such as "special verbs".
The principal distinguishing properties of verbs in this special group are as follows:
The group of verb forms with the above properties are:
Some linguists consider membership in this syntactic class the defining property for English auxiliary verbs. The chief difference between this syntactic definition of "auxiliary verb" and the functional definition given in the section above is that the syntactic definition includes forms of the verb be even when used simply as a copular verb where it does not accompany any other verb. For this and other differences in the sets of words identified as auxiliaries by various authors, see the following section.
Non-indicative and non-finite forms of the same verbs are usually described as auxiliaries too, even though all or most of the distinctive syntactical properties do not apply to them specifically: be, being and been; when used in the expression of perfect aspect, have, having and had.
Sometimes, non-auxiliary uses of have follow auxiliary syntax, as in Have you any ideas? and I haven't a clue. Other lexical verbs do not do this in modern English, although they did so formerly, and such uses as I know not... can be found in archaic English.

Differences in listings of auxiliary verbs

Lists or sets of auxiliary verbs in English, as given by various authors, generally consist of most or all of the verbs mentioned in the above sections, though with minor discrepancies.
The main differences between the various proposed sets of auxiliary verbs are noted below.
The contractions of negated forms of auxiliary verbs behave in a certain sense as if they were auxiliaries in their own right, in that they can participate as a whole in subject–auxiliary inversion.

Meaning contribution

Forms of the verbs have and be, used as auxiliaries with a main verb's past participle and present participle respectively, express perfect aspect and progressive aspect. When forms of be are used with the past participle, they express passive voice. It is possible to combine any two or all three of these uses:
Here the auxiliaries has, been and being combine to express perfect and progressive aspect and passive voice.
The auxiliary do does not typically contribute any meaning, except when used to add emphasis to an accompanying verb. This is called the emphatic mood in English: An example would be "I do go to work on time every day", compared to "I go to work on time every day." As an auxiliary, do mainly helps form questions, negations, etc., as described in the article on do-support.
Other auxiliaries – the modal verbs – contribute meaning chiefly in the form of modality, although some of them express future time reference. Their uses are detailed at English modal verbs, and tables summarizing their principal meaning contributions can be found in the articles Modal verb and Auxiliary verb.
For more details on the uses of auxiliaries to express aspect, mood and time reference, see English clause syntax.

Contractions

s are a common feature of English, used frequently in ordinary speech. In written English, contractions are used in some formal writing and mostly in informal writing. They usually involve the elision of a vowel – an apostrophe being inserted in its place in written English – possibly accompanied by other changes. Many of these contractions involve auxiliary verbs and their negations, although not all of these have common contractions, and there are also certain other contractions not involving these verbs.
Contractions were first used in speech during the early 17th century and in writing during the mid 17th century when not lost its stress and tone and formed the contraction -n't. Around the same time, contracted auxiliaries were first used. When it was first used, it was limited in writing to only fiction and drama. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of contractions in writing spread outside of fiction such as personal letters, journalism, and descriptive texts.
Certain contractions tend to be restricted to less formal speech and very informal writing, such as John'd or Mary'd for "John/Mary would". This applies in particular to constructions involving consecutive contractions, such as wouldn't've for "would not have".
Contractions in English are generally not mandatory as in some other languages. It is almost always acceptable to use the uncontracted form, although in speech this may seem overly formal. This is often done for emphasis: I am ready! The uncontracted form of an auxiliary or copula must be used in elliptical sentences where its complement is omitted: Who's ready? I am!.
Some contractions lead to homophony, which sometimes causes errors in writing. Confusion is particularly common between it's and the pronoun possessive its, and sometimes similarly between you're and your. For the confusion of have or -'ve with of, see Weak and strong forms in English.
Contractions of the type described here should not be confused with abbreviations, such as Ltd. for "Limited ". Contraction-like abbreviations, such as int'l for international, are considered abbreviations as their contracted forms cannot be pronounced in speech. Abbreviations also include acronyms and initialisms.

Contracted auxiliaries

The following contractions of auxiliary verbs are used:
The contraction -'s is pronounced in the same way as the regular plural ending -s and possessive ending -'s, namely as or when following a sibilant sound, as when following any other voiceless consonant, and as otherwise.

Negative contractions

Contractions of negated auxiliary verbs in Standard English are formed by reducing the negative grammatical particle not to -n't, a clitic or suffix that is fused to the root verb form. The -n't may form a separate syllable, as in isn't and wouldn't, or may become part of the preceding syllable, as in the monosyllables don't, aren't and weren't.
The standard contractions for negation of auxiliaries are as follows:
The above contractions can appear when the verb follows auxiliary-type syntax as defined in the section. This includes all uses of be, and for some speakers have when used to denote possession. For details of the usage of the modal contractions, see the relevant sections of English modal verbs. For the possibility of inverting a negative contraction with the clause subject, see below.
The following four of the standard negative contractions involve changes to the form of the auxiliary.
There is no standard contraction for am not except in inversion. This is known as the "amn't gap". Some non-standard contractions for this and certain other negations are described in the following sections.

Contractions representing ''am not''

Although there is no contraction for am not in standard English, there are certain colloquial or dialectal forms that may fill this role. These may be used in declarative sentences, whose standard form contains I am not, and in questions, with standard form am I not? In the declarative case the standard contraction I'm not is available, but this does not apply in questions, where speakers may feel the need for a negative contraction to form the analog of isn't it, aren't they, etc..
The following are sometimes used in place of am not in the cases described above:
There is therefore no completely satisfactory first-person alternative to aren't you? and isn't it? in standard English. The grammatical am I not? sounds stilted or affected, while aren't I? is grammatically dubious, and ain't I? is considered substandard. Nonetheless, aren't I? is the solution adopted in practice by most speakers.

Other colloquial contractions

Ain't is a colloquialism and contraction for "am not", "is not", "was not" "are not", "were not" "has not", and "have not". In some dialects "ain't" is also used as a contraction of "do not", "does not", "did not", "cannot/can not", "could not", "will not", "would not" and "should not". The usage of "ain't" is a perennial subject of controversy in English.
"Ain't" has several antecedents in English, corresponding to the various forms of "to be not" and "to have not".
"An't" arose from "am not" and "are not" almost simultaneously. "An't" first appears in print in the work of English Restoration playwrights. In 1695 "an't" was used as a contraction of "am not", and as early as 1696 "an't" was used to mean "are not". "An't" for "is not" may have developed independently from its use for "am not" and "are not". "Isn't" was sometimes written as "in't" or "en't", which could have changed into "an't". "An't" for "is not" may also have filled a gap as an extension of the already-used conjugations for "to be not".
"An't" with a long "a" sound began to be written as "ain't", which first appears in writing in 1749. By the time "ain't" appeared, "an't" was already being used for "am not", "are not", and "is not". "An't" and "ain't" coexisted as written forms well into the nineteenth century.
"Han't" or "ha'n't", an early contraction for "has not" and "have not", developed from the elision of the "s" of "has not" and the "v" of "have not". "Han't" also appeared in the work of English Restoration playwrights. Much like "an't", "han't" was sometimes pronounced with a long "a", yielding "hain't". With H-dropping, the "h" of "han't" or "hain't" gradually disappeared in most dialects, and became "ain't". "Ain't" as a contraction for "has not"/"have not" appeared in print as early as 1819. As with "an't", "hain't" and "ain't" were found together late into the nineteenth century.
Some other colloquial and dialect contractions are described below:
The following contractions used in English do not involve either auxiliaries or their negations:
In cases of subject–auxiliary inversion, particularly in the formation of questions, the negative contractions can remain together as a unit and invert with the subject, thus acting as if they were auxiliary verbs in their own right. For example:
One alternative is not to use the contraction, in which case only the verb inverts with the subject, while the not remains in place after it:
Note that the form with isn't he is no longer a simple contraction of the fuller form.
Another alternative to contract the auxiliary with the subject, in which case inversion does not occur at all:
Some more examples:
The contracted forms of the questions are more usual in informal English. They are commonly found in tag questions. For the possibility of using aren't I in place of the uncontracted am I not, see Contractions representing am not above.
The same phenomenon sometimes occurs in the case of negative inversion: