A helping verb, also known as an auxiliary verb, is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Helping verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a participle, and they are said to "help" the main verb by establishing certain facts about a sentence, usually when they're happening in time
. They work together with the main verb to form a verb phrase that has a certain tense, mood, voice, or other grammatical aspect
. Some common helping verbs in English include "be," "have," "do," "can," "could," "may," "might," "must," "shall," "should," "will," "would," and "ought to"
