Sunday, May 24, 2020

QA Auxiliary Verbs in Spanish

Question: Does Spanish have any auxiliary verbs other than haber? Answer: Yes, but their usages arent always parallel to the English usages of auxiliary verbs. In general, forms in English that require an auxiliary verb (other than the forms that are translated using haber) dont require auxiliaries in Spanish. A sentence in English such as I will leave becomes saldrà © in Spanish, the simple future tense,  not needing a separate word for will. And I am leaving can be expressed simply as salgo. However, the verb estar can be used as an auxiliary with the present participle, although such a usage is  less common than in English. For example, I am leaving can be expressed both as stated above and by saying estoy saliendo. And while its not really an auxiliary in Spanish, the verb poder (to be able) can be used for the English auxiliaries can and may (although there are a variety of other ways to translate may). For example: Puedo salir, I can leave. Notice similarly that infinitives (such as salir in the previous example) can follow any number of verbs. For example, you can say decidià ³ salir (he decided to leave), quiero salir (I want to leave) and pensaba salir (I thought about leaving or I intended to leave). These verbs arent really functioning as auxiliaries; instead, the infinitives are functioning as something similar to objects.

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