Skip to content
- Is: Auxiliary verb used with 3rd person singular, in present tense
- Am: Auxiliary verb used with 1st person singular, in present tense
- Are: Auxiliary verb used with 2nd person singular and all plural forms, in present tense
- Was: Auxiliary verb used with 1st and 3rd person singular, in past tense
- Were: Auxiliary verb used with 2nd person singular and all plural forms, in past tense
- Been: Past participle of 'be'
- Being: Present participle of 'be'
- Do: Auxiliary verb used to express negative statements, questions, and for emphatic affirmation
- Does: Auxiliary verb used in the same way as 'do' but with 3rd person singular subjects
- Did: Auxiliary verb used for past tense negative statements, questions and emphatic affirmation
- Have: Auxiliary verb used to form present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses
- Has: Same as 'have' but used with 3rd person singular subjects
- Had: Auxiliary verb used to form past perfect and future perfect tenses
- Having: Present participle of 'have'
- Had Been: Used with the past perfect continuous tense
- Been Being: Expressed the state of something that was ongoing and is still ongoing till now
- Will: Auxiliary verb used to form future tenses
- Would: Auxiliary verb used to form conditional and future-in-the-past tense
- Will Have: Used with the future perfect tense
- Would Have: Used with the conditional perfect tense
- Would Have Been: Used with the conditional perfect continuous tense
- Will Have Been: Used with the future perfect continuous tense
- Will Be: Used with the future progressive tense
- Would Be: Used with conditional and future-in-the-past progressive tenses
- Could: Auxiliary verb used to express possible and hypothetical conditions
- Can: Auxiliary verb used to express ability, permission or possibility
- May: Auxiliary verb used to express possibility or permission
- Might: Auxiliary verb used to express possible conditions or uncertain events, often in hypothetical situations
- Should: Auxiliary verb used to express advisability, likely conditions or expectations
- Ought to: Auxiliary verb used to advise or recommend actions
- Must: Auxiliary verb used to express obligation or necessity
- Shall: Auxiliary verb traditionally used with 1st person to form the future (rarely used in modern English)
- Could Have: Used to express a missed opportunity in the past
- Could Have Been: Used to speculate about something in the past that did not happen
- Should Have: Used to indicate regret, or that something did not happen that was supposed to
- Must Have: Used to express a strong belief about a past fact
- May Have: Used to show possibility of an event which has probably happened
- Might Have: Expression of past possibilities
- Can't: Negative auxiliary verb used to express inability or impossibility
- Won't: Negative form of 'will'
- Wouldn't: Negative form of 'would'
- Shan't: Negative form of 'shall', rarely used in modern English
- Shouldn't: Negative form of 'should'
- Can't Have: Used to express something that was not possible in the past
- Could Not Have: Used to express a missed opportunity in the past
- Mustn't: Negative form of 'must', expresses prohibition
- Needn't: Negative form of 'need', expresses needless action
- Oughtn't: Negative form of 'ought to', rarely used in modern English