2. With infinitives.—a) With the objective infinitive—I can speak: b) With the gerundial infinitive—I have to speak.
3. With both infinitives and participles.—I shall have done, I mean to have done.
D. Auxiliary verbs may be classified according to their effect.—Thus—have makes the combination in which it appears equivalent to a tense; be to a passive form; may to a sign of mood, &c.
This sketch of the different lights under which auxiliary verbs may be viewed, has been written for the sake of illustrating, rather than exhausting, the subject.
[§ 579]. The following is an exhibition of some of the times in which an action may take place, as found in either the English or other languages, expressed by the use of either an inflection or a combination.
Time considered in one point only—
1. Present.—An action taking place at the time of speaking, and incomplete.—I am beating, I am being beaten. Not expressed, in English, by the simple present tense; since I beat means I am in the habit of beating.
2. Aorist.—An action that took place in past time, or previous to the time of speaking, and which has no connection with the time of speaking.—I struck, I was stricken. Expressed, in English, by the præterite, in Greek by the aorist. The term aorist, from the Greek ἀ-όριστος=undefined, is a convenient name for this sort of time.
3. Future.—An action that has neither taken place, nor is taking place at the time of speaking, but which is stated as one which will take place.—Expressed, in English, by the combination of will or shall with an infinitive mood. In Latin and Greek by an inflection. I shall (or will) speak, λέκ-σω, dica-m.