We have learned in Lesson XL. that the verb has different forms of
itself to express a difference between present and past time only, and
when we wish to express that an act took place any other time, we use
another verb to aid the principal verb.
State which of the italicized verbs in the following sentences is used
independently, to express its own meaning, and which is used to aid
another verb to express its meaning:—
1. I _have_ a knife.
2. I _have_ written the letter.
3. He _was_ a good student.
4. He _was_ fined for doing wrong.
A verb that is used to help to conjugate other verbs is called an
=auxiliary verb=; as, We _have_ found your book.
The auxiliary verbs that aid in distinguishing the time of an action are
_have_, _shall_, _will_, _do_ and _be_.