An introduction to little ‘do’. Why don’t they teach us this in English classes? |
Making positive and ‘negative sentences’ using little ‘do’. |
In this article I will concentrate on the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘You’. We will look at each of the verb sets in more detail soon. |
There are three sentence forms that you need to know when you first study English. Who knew? The ‘S.V.C. sentence’ is a ‘describing sentence’ using a ‘be’ verb set. The two ‘S.V.O sentences’ describe actions. They use ‘do’ and ‘have’ verb sets. ‘be’, ‘do’ and ‘have’ are the ‘auxiliary verbs’ that give each sentence their names. Check them out in the corresponding articles as they arrive here on the blog. | |
‘I am playing tennis.’ ‘be’ verb sentence. ‘I (do) play tennis.’ ‘I do play tennis.’ ‘do’ verb sentence. ‘I have played tennis.’ ‘have’ verb sentence. | |
Notice ‘do’ verb set sentence is complicated because it has two forms. One with the ‘do’ spoken and one with the ‘do’ unspoken. ‘I do say the ‘do’ sometimes.’ | |
‘do’ unspoken. | ‘do’ spoken. |
‘I (do) play tennis.’ | ‘I do play tennis.’ |
Here comes little ‘do’. Talking negative. |
We usually say: ‘I play…’ with the ‘do’ unspoken. ‘I (do) play tennis.’ IMPORTANT. When we make a ‘negative’ sentence we need little ‘do’. |
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‘do’ and ‘not’ are little friends. Little ‘do’ holds hands with little ‘not’, and together they make ‘negative sentences’. | |
‘I (do) play tennis.’ ò Here comes little ‘do’. ‘I do not play tennis.’ ‘do’ is always spoken in ‘negative sentences’. | |
Exercise. Have a look at the pictures and say what the people do during their day. Practice with ‘do’ spoken and unspoken.
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Making questions with little ‘do’. |
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Making questions
is easy. Just swap your ‘do’ verb set. Little ‘do’ is always spoken in questions. |
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‘I (do) play tennis.’ ‘Do you play tennis?’ Don’t forget your question mark. |
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Isn’t little ‘do’
helpful?’ All you need to do is remember him. |
