English has lots of tenses but, apart from the simple present and past, it needs auxiliary verbs to make them. Auxiliary verbs are the little words – do, have, will – that fine-tune other verbs. They add depth and shade but have the same drawbacks as to be, giving off low heat and stuffing sentences with repetitions. Auxiliaries accompany mealy-mouthed admissions and soft-soaping safety-speak. We do apologize for the late running of this service.
