What is the difference between auxiliary and linking verbs?

Understanding the Roles

The main difference between auxiliary and linking verbs lies in their roles within a sentence.

• Auxiliary verbs help other verbs to form tenses, moods, and voices. They are often called "helping verbs."
• Linking verbs connect the subject of a sentence to a noun, pronoun, or adjective that describes or renames the subject.

Auxiliary Verbs: The Helpers

Auxiliary verbs are essential for forming complex verb phrases. They combine with a main verb to express various grammatical features:

• Tense: Present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect
• Mood: Indicative, imperative, subjunctive
• Voice: Active, passive

Examples:

• Tense: I have been studying. (present perfect tense)
• Mood: I should study more. (subjunctive mood)
• Voice: The book was written by Jane Austen. (passive voice)

Common Auxiliary Verbs:

• be (am, is, are, was, were, been, being)
• have (has, had, having)
• do (does, did, doing)
• will (would, shall, should)
• can (could, may, might, must)

Linking Verbs: The Connectors

Linking verbs don't describe actions; they connect the subject to a predicate nominative or predicate adjective.

• Predicate nominative: A noun or pronoun that renames the subject.
• Predicate adjective: An adjective that describes the subject.

Examples:

• She is a doctor. (doctor renames the subject, she)
• The dog seems happy. (happy describes the subject, dog)

Common Linking Verbs:

• be (am, is, are, was, were, been, being)
• appear
• become
• feel
• look
• seem
• sound
• taste
• smell

Key Differences

Conclusion

Understanding the difference between auxiliary and linking verbs is crucial for constructing grammatically correct and meaningful sentences. Auxiliary verbs help create complex verb phrases, while linking verbs connect the subject to further information about it.