How To Do "To Do"

One of our friends asked us to explain a little about the verb “to do”, as this can be sometimes a little confusing when you are learning English. So here we go!

“Do” may be a very small word but it is very important in the English language- and used all the time! As I’m sure you know “to do” is a verb (a doing word if you like!) but what it is you may be doing depends on the sentence that you use. For example if someone asks you to do the dishes they are asking you to wash the dishes, usually after eating. If you are doing your nails, then it is likely you are applying coats of nail varnish, whereas if you are going to do the lottery you are intending to purchase the magic ticket and hope for a win. So as you can see the word “do” means there is an action involved but what that action is only becomes obvious when you have the whole sentence at your disposal.    

The verb changes depending on the subject of the sentence. If you are using “I “, “you”, “they” or “we” then “do” is the correct form. For example I may ask “Do you like going to the cinema”?    Or “Do they all like coffee?”

If you are using him or her (or a person’s name) as the subject in your sentence, then “do” becomes “does”.   I may ask “Does Karen like ice-cream”? The reply could be “Yes she does!”

The negative of do is “do not” (in spoke English this is usually shortened to “don’t”). So again when you using “I”, “you”, “they” or “we” we would use don’t.  Here’s an example. “Do you like carrots? No, I don’t like many vegetables”.

However when using he/she or a person’s name the negative of “do” becomes does not (doesn’t).   “Kylie doesn’t like dogs, since she was bitten by a puppy”.

One easy thing to remember is the past tense of “do” is “did”, and this applies to everyone.  “I did it, they did it, she did it, Luke did it” etc etc.

On the same note the negative past tense is did not (didn’t) and this again applies to everyone.  “Mat didn’t do his homework”, “They didn’t win their football game”, “I didn’t like it!”

Another little quirk is that British people often use the word “do” to emphasise a point. It often appears in sentences when to an onlooker it may not appear necessary. For example if someone’s boss was to say “I thought I asked you to write a report on that” the reply could be “I did write the report” rather than “I wrote the report”.

Just one last reason why this little word is so important could be its use in the marriage vows. Do you take this woman to be your loving wife, to have and to hold from this day onwards.....the answer my friends is “I do”. 

We hope this helps clarify when and how to use this useful verb. Let us know if there are other areas of spoken English that you would like explained.

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