1
Auxiliaries
Primary auxiliaries (primaire hulpwerkwoorden)– no real semantic meaning:
(forms of) to have, to be, to do
Modal auxiliaries (modale hulpwerkwoorden)– add some semantic meaning to a sentence:
Can/could, may/might, must, will/would, shall/should, ought to, used to, dare (dare I say it), need (need I say more?)
Verbs
Lexical verb as a question, in the negative and with question tag
Need to use form of “to do” (do, does, did)
Do you play?
You don’t play.
You play, don’t you?
Copulas (koppelwerkwoorden)
Also called Copular verbs
A verb that joins the subject of a sentence to an adjective or subject complement/noun complement:
He became a Super Saiyan
After copular verbs we use adjectives (bijvoeglijke naamwoorden), not adverbs (bijwoorden)
What’s the difference between these verbs?
He eats like a pig
He is a pig
He has bought a pig
Lexical verbs
(zelfstandige werkwoorden)
Also known as the main verb (hoofdwerkwoord)
They carry a real meaning and are not dependent on another verb
Lexical verbs are extremely common in both conversation and fiction but quite rare in written registers such as news and academic prose.
The single-word lexical verbs say, get, go, know,and think are the five most common verbs occurring in British and American conversation.
Example: She is eating