Auxiliary verbs

I wonder if there are more other auxiliary verbs in addition to that 23 common verbs.

for example when we say : "I let him go." , can we consider the verb "let" as an auxiliary, just because of that it's followed by a bare infinitive as that 23 auxiliaries do?

in other words is any verb followed by a bare infinitive called an auxiliary? if not, what is the exact definition of an auxiliary verb?

Solution 1:

In this case, I think the Wikipedia article is pretty good.

Auxiliary Verb

So, no, "let" is not an auxiliary verb by most definitions. It's a much more interesting thing--a ditransitive verb with a verbal object.

Solution 2:

I wonder if there are more other auxiliary verbs in addition to that 23 common verbs.

The idea of 23 of them is new to me, but googling provides the following list:

1. will
2. shall
3. can
4. would
5. should
6. could
7. may
8. might
9. must
10. do
11. does
12. did
13. am
14. is
15. are
16. was
17. were
18. be
19. been
20. have
21. has
22. had
23. being

That list is incomplete, but arguably also over-long. We can provide a fuller list:

1. be
2. am,
3. are,
4. is,
5. was,
6. were,
7. being,
8. been,
9. can,
10. could,
11. dare,
12. do
13. does,
14. did,
15. have
16. has,
17. had,
18. having,
19. may,
20. might,
21. must,
22. mote,
23. need,
24. ought,
25. had better,
26. shall,
27. should,
28. will,
29. would
30. used to

Not all of them are used much as such in all dialects, and in particular mote is pretty much obsolete bar the expression "so mote it be" found in Freemasonry, Wicca and some other modern magical or religious practices influenced by one or both of those.

We could add on contractions, and have a few more in the list (lots more if we allow the very many different dialect contractions of some of them), but this list of 30 seems a reasonable attempt to fill out the 23.

However, most of those are different forms of the same word, so we could in fact shorten the list to:

1. be (am, are, is, was, were, being),
2. can,
3. could,
4. dare,
5. do (does, did),
6. have (has, had, having),
7. may,
8. might,
9. must,
10. mote
11. need,
12. ought,
13. had better,
14. shall,
15. should,
16. will,
17. would
18. used to

And indeed, there is a relationship between some of those still listed as separate, with e.g. could being the preterite of can even though when used as auxiliaries the preterite works differently with tenses than it does with other verbs. Still, we could still shorten the list further:

1. be (am, are, is, was, were, being),
2. can/could,
3. dare,
4. do (does, did),
5. have (has, had, having),
6. may/might,
7. must/mote
8. need,
9. ought,
10. had better,
11. shall/should,
12. will/would
13. used to