Lexical Verbs
* The "action" words: They describe the main action or state of being in a sentence.
* Carry meaning on their own: They can stand alone as the verb in a sentence.
* Examples: *run, eat, sleep, think, love, be, seem*
Auxiliary Verbs
* "Helping" verbs: They work alongside lexical verbs to provide additional information about tense, mood, voice, etc.
* Do not carry meaning on their own: They need a lexical verb to create a complete verb phrase.
* Examples: *do, have, will, can, should, may, must, is, are, was, were, be*
How they work together:
* Verb Phrases: Auxiliary verbs often combine with lexical verbs to form verb phrases. For example: *is running*, *will have eaten*, *should be sleeping*.
* Tense and Aspect: Auxiliary verbs help express different tenses (present, past, future) and aspects (progressive, perfect) of the verb.
* Voice: They can indicate active or passive voice.
Let's see some examples:
* Lexical verb: *The cat slept on the mat.*
* Auxiliary verb + lexical verb: *The cat is sleeping on the mat.*
* Multiple auxiliary verbs: *The cat has been sleeping on the mat for hours.*
Remember:
* A sentence can have only one lexical verb, but it can have multiple auxiliary verbs.
* It's helpful to identify the main action or state of being in the sentence to determine the lexical verb.
Let me know if you would like more examples or have any other questions!