What part of speech is the word or phrase given in bold letters?

1. He fasted for a week.

a) Adjective
b) Verb
c) Adverb
d) Preposition

2. Muslims observe fast in the month of Ramzan.

a) Noun
b) Verb
c) Adjective
d) Adverb

An auxiliary verb is a helping verb. Auxiliary verbs are placed before main verbs to form the tenses, voices and moods. Test your knowledge of auxiliary verbs with this quiz.

Fill in the blanks with appropriate auxiliary verbs.

1.    He ——————- succeed if he works hard.

The term anomalous finites is used to refer to the group of 24 finites given below:

Present Tense: Is, am, are, has, have, do, does, shall, will, can, may, must, ought, need and dare
Past tense: was, were, had, did, should, would, could, might, used

In indirect speech

Should is the past tense of shall in indirect speech.

Direct speech: The Captain said, “Players shall assemble at the ground at 4 pm.”
Indirect speech: The Captain said that players should assemble at the ground at 4 pm.
Direct Speech: He said, “The scoundrel shall be punished.”
Indirect speech: He said that the scoundrel should be punished.

The distinction between shall and will is becoming less significant and is now strictly observed only by precise speakers. Shall is becoming much less common with second and third person pronouns. In the first person, however, shall is still being used to talk about simple future.

With the first person

Shall is used with first person pronouns to express simple futurity.

I shall leave for Texas tomorrow.
We shall discuss the matter with him.
I shall be thirty next Friday.
We shall invite them to the party.
I shall begin the work tomorrow.

As a principal verb

Be and its forms can be used as principal verbs. They are then called linking verbs because they link the subject with a following word.

An auxiliary verb is one which helps other verbs form tenses other than the simple present and simple past.

The following are the auxiliary verbs in English:

Be and its forms: is, am, are, was and were
Do and its forms: does, did
Have and its forms: has, had
Shall, should; will, would
Can, could; may, might
Must; ought; dare; need