Auxiliary verbs are the verbs which help the main verb and give extra meaning to it.

For example: "I have studied English for three years." The auxiliary verb have changes the tense of the sentence to present perfect, so we know the activity is ongoing. "I studied English for three years." In this case there is no auxiliary verb and the sentence is therefore past simple, which means the activity has finished. So auxiliary verbs are very important for understanding the meaning of a sentence!

A verb (such as have, do, or will) that determines the mood, tense, or aspect of another verb in a verb phrase. Auxiliary verbs always precede main verbs within a verb phrase. Auxiliaries are also known as helping verbs. Contrast with lexical verbs.

auxiliary verb
noun

a word used in construction with and preceding certain forms of other ver bs, as infinitives or participles, toexpress distinctions of tense, aspect, mo od, etc., as did in Did you go?, am in I am listening, have in Wehave spoken, o r can in They can see. Also called helping verb.

Traditional grammarians and modern linguists have approached this complicated area of languages with slightly different terminological conventions. What many traditional grammarians label as various kinds of 'tense,' modern linguists split into two different ideas, namely: Tense, which is strictly to do with WHEN something happened or was the case; Aspect, which is concerned with factors such as the DURATION or COMPLETENESS of events and states of affairs.