I stumbled upon a question on from a review that made my head make a 180. The direction I was given was to only find auxiliary verbs/helping verbs in the sentence. The question I was given is below: Pompeii must have had many beautiful villas before the volcano destroyed it. - my answer : Pompeii must have had many beautiful villas before the volcano destroyed it. - what I got wrong: had how is had wrong, when it is a "to have" verb?
I'm confused by your question. Are you saying that "to have" verbs are always auxiliary verbs? Maybe you're thinking of the use of "had" to communicate tense, as in: Jane had eaten all the figs. That is a very different use from using "had" to communicate possession or ownership, as in: Jane had some figs. In fact, you can combine the first use with the second use: Jane had had some figs.
Take this with a grain of salt, because I haven't studied this in probably a decade, but... "To have" verbs are only helping verbs when they're actually helping another verb, right? So in your example: The "must have" are helping the main verb, which is "had"--Pompeii had many beautiful villas...etc. Not sure what the correct term for "main verb" is, but the "had" in this case can't be a helping verb because without it there would be no other verb in that clause. I think? Yeah, that's what I'm going with. Need a true grammarian to confirm, though.
New, Had is not being used as a helping verb, it is being used as the main verb. 'Have' (and all its forms) can be used as a helping verb, OR it can be used as the main verb as it means 'To possess.' Don't attempt these exercises by just picking on the words. Really read the sentence and see what is being said.
