What Are Helping Verbs & Verb Phrases?
Verb phrases consist of one main verb and one or more helping verbs (also called auxiliary verbs).
Sometimes they are separated.
*When we ask questions, the auxiliary verb comes at the beginning of the sentence, and the main verb comes later. *Words like never, not, and the contraction n't are not part of the verb.
Verb Phrases Act as VerbsThis seems obvious, right? They are made up of verbs. But, the point here is that although they are made up of different words, all of the words come together to act as one part of speech, a verb. Here are a few examples. The cheesecake might be exploding.  *might be exploding is telling us what the cheesecake is doing (an action).
Did you call Owen? *Did call is asking what you did (an action).
Owen has become a great cook.  *has become is telling us Owen's state of being (a state of being verb).
Basic DiagrammingVerb phrases are diagrammed on a horizontal line right after the subject.  Want to test yourself? Click here to do more sentence diagramming.
For more help with helping verbs and verb phrases, see the verb page.Back to Phrases Back to English Grammar Home Page
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