From Wikigogy

Or What do all those do’s do there?

Keyword

• Do-support
• inversion
• auxilary verb
• question
• negation
• grammar
• middle_school high_school college adult

Many current explanations of do-support are filled with unexplained terminology, but do-support appears early on in English grammar, so this provides a simpler explanation of the phenomenon for middle or high school students. It can also serve as a brush-up for college students and adults, but for them, the text may sound childish.

The English language has a feature that may baffle learners: all of a sudden “do” appears! Why? The best way to explain it, is to see this do-support as the solution to a problem in the English language.

[edit] What is the problem?

English has a strict word order. This means, that a certain type of sentence, always has the same order. A regular (or declarative) sentence is the type you use to give an idea, fact or argument. This sentence type always has the order Subject – Verb – The Rest.

Subject	Verb	The Rest
Laura	is	a teacher
You	throw	the ball
We	walk	in the park
The children	play	happily
Mark	loves	to go online every day

When you want to make a different sentence type, a question, you need to make changes in the word order. If you leave the order as it is, you can make a question. Because next to word order, one other signal screams question: a rising intonation. This means that at the end of the sentence your voice goes higher. If you just do this, then all those sentences in the table above sound like you’re surprised about it. It’s not a real question.

So, for a real question, English changes the word order: Verb – Subject – The Rest. This process is called inversion: basically flipping the order of subject and verb. Now, take another look at the table.

Inversion	Subject	The Rest
Is	Laura	a teacher?
XXXXXXX	You	throw the ball
XXXXXXX	We	walk in the park
XXXXXXX	The children	play happily
XXXXXXX	Mark	loves to go online every day

Not all verbs want to change their position! They want to stay where they are! So, that’s the problem. Most English verbs don’t want to leave their spot, but the grammar of the question needs a verb in the first position.

[edit] Solution: add a do!

To fill that first spot of the question, we need a verb. That’s why we take “do”, it has almost no meaning, it is empty. This also explains why “to be” (“is” in the table) can go to the first spot, it’s also a quite empty verb. Other verbs that are empty are: can, could, shall, should, will, would, must, may, dare, and need (modal verbs). Sometimes “to have” changes position, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on what the verb is used for. If it has the full meaning of a person having something, then it doesn’t move. If it just has a grammar purpose, than it does move.

So, now we get:

Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Is	Laura	-	a teacher?
Do	you	throw	the ball?
Do	we	walk	in the park?
Do	the children	play	happily?
Do XXXXXXX	Mark	loves	to go online every day

The last line of the table is special. English has a clear rule that he, she, and it get an extra –s to the verb. Since Mark is a he, this is also true for him. But, the –s doesn’t stay on the main verb, it moves to the first position, to the empty verb. And with “to do”, not just an –s gets added, but –es. So, for Mark, we get:

Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Does	Mark	love	to go online every day?

[edit] More difficult questions

This explains how you make simple questions that can be answered with yes or no. Of course, there are question where the answer is a statement, a regular sentence like “I’m going home tomorrow” or “It’s twelve o’clock”. Open questions use a question word: who, what, where, how, when, and which. Notice how most of these words start with “wh”, the two letters are flipped in “how”. To make an open question, you just add the question word before anything else. The question are answered by (a part of) “The Rest”.

Question word	Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Who	is	Laura	-	?
What	do	you	throw	?
Where	do	we	walk	?
How	do	the children	play	?
When	does	Mark	love	to go online?

“Which” is a special question word that is used to select between different options, but goes by the same rules.

• Which part of the country are you from?
• Which house is yours?
• Which music player is the best, iPod or Sony?

[edit] Other uses

Another main reason to use do-support is negation, talking about “not” or “no”. Empty verbs allow “not” to be put directly after them, but other verbs don’t. With them, you need to use do-support if you want to negate the sentence.

Subject	Negation	Verb	The Rest
Laura	-	isn't	a teacher
You	don't	throw	the ball
We	don't	walk	in the park
The children	don't	play	happily
Mark	doesn't	love	to go online every day

Notice that “do not” is usually put together as “don’t”. Also notice that now, “love” doesn’t keep the –s, but it moves to the negation.

Do-support is also used to put emphasis on what you say. Emphasis means that you put in extra attention or focus on your claim.
I do like ice-cream!
He did do his homework
Laura does sound sick

[edit] Past and future

Naturally, questions are not just asked about the present world, but also about the past or the future. The same basic rules apply, but notice that all the grammar functions go to the empty verb. We saw this with Mark, where the –s goes from “love” to “do”. But past and future are also put on the empty verb.

[edit] Simple past without question

Subject	Verb	The Rest
Laura	was	a teacher
You	threw	the ball
We	walked	in the park
The children	played	happily
Mark	loved	to go online every day

[edit] Simple past with yes/no question

Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Was	Laura	-	a teacher?
Did	you	throw	the ball?
Did	we	walk	in the park?
Did	the children	play	happily?
Did	Mark	love	to go online every day?

[edit] Simple past with question word

Question word	Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Who	was	Laura	-	?
What	did	you	throw	?
Where	did	we	walk	?
How	did	the children	play	?
When	did	Mark	love	to go online?

[edit] Future without question

Subject	Verb	The Rest
Laura	will be	a teacher
You	will throw	the ball
We	will walk	in the park
The children	will play	happily
Mark	will love	to go online every day

[edit] Future with yes/no question

Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Will	Laura	be	a teacher?
Will	you	throw	the ball?
Will	we	walk	in the park?
Will	the children	play	happily?
Will	Mark	love	to go online every day?

[edit] Future with question word

Question word	Empty verb	Subject	Main verb	The Rest
Who	will	Laura	be	?
What	will	you	throw	?
Where	will	we	walk	?
How	will	the children	play	?
When	will	Mark	love	to go online?

[edit] Lesson plans

• Discussion card
  
• What do you like

[edit] See also

Beginning-low language structures (Sentence patterns)