DO - DOES - DID - DONE - English grammar lesson
The word DO appears a lot in English.
This is because it can be a verb, as in the verb TO DO, which can be conjugated as
DO and DOES in the present tense, DID in the past tense
and DONE as a past participle.
DO can also be an auxiliary verb in the form of DO and DOES to make questions in the present tense
and DID to make questions in the past tense.
Let's look at each one in more detail.
We will start with the verb TO DO.
As we have seen, the verb TO DO has four forms:
do, does, did and done.
Let's look at its form in the simple present tense.
With the verb TO DO in the present tense.
We say: I do, you do, we do, they do,
but we say he does, she does, it does.
Let's look at some example sentences.
I do my laundry on Saturdays.
DO my laundry means I wash my clothes...
well I put it in the washing machine.
They do their chores when they arrive home.
Chores are the housework you need to do
like washing the dishes, doing the vacuuming, etc.
He does nothing all day.
That's right, he is quite lazy. He does absolutely nothing.
She does charity work when she has time.
People that do charity work are superheroes.
The simple past tense of DO is DID for all subjects.
I did, you did, we did, they did, he did, she did, it did.
Notice how there's only one form of the verb in the past tense: DID
He did a magic trick.
Yes and everyone was amazed.... wow!
The baby did a fart.
Yes, and the smell made everyone cry!
How can such a cute thing produce something so rotten!
I did my homework in record time.
Yes, it only took me five hours instead of ten.
She did ballet after school last year.
This year she's doing something different.
The past participle of DO is DONE.
Remember that past participles are
accompanied by a conjugation of the verb TO HAVE or TO BE
which means it is in the correct tense according to the subject.
In general HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE is used with a perfect tense
and BE + PAST PARTICIPLE is with the passive voice.
Let's look at some examples.
I have done my homework.
He has done a good job.
These two sentences are in the present perfect tense
because they have HAVE or HAS before the past participle DONE.
The video will show you how it is done.
The report was done on time.
Here we used a conjugation of the verb TO BE before the past participle Done.
The verb TO DO can also be used to replace a verb.
We sometimes use the verb DO to replace a verb when the meaning is clear or obvious.
This replacement is more common in informal spoken English.
Have you done the dishes yet?
Here DONE means washed.
I'll do the kitchen if you do the lawns.
The first DO means clean, clean the kitchen.
The second DO means mow, mow the lawns.
Sometimes DO, DOES and DID are used as auxiliaries to make questions in English.
Let's start with DO and DOES.
To make a question in the simple present tense in English,
We normally put the auxiliary DO or DOES at the beginning of the question before the subject.
After the subject is the verb in its base form,
which means the infinitive without TO at the beginning.
Look at this affirmative sentence.
You speak English.
How can we make this a question?
We add DO at the beginning so it becomes
Do you speak English?
You'll see that we add DO at the beginning when the subject is I, you, we or they.
But look at this affirmative sentence
He speaks Arabic.
To make this a question we say
Does he speak Arabic?
You can see that we add DOES at the beginning
when the subject is he, she, or it.
Notice how the letter S at the end of the verb in the affirmative sentence,
because it is in third person, disappears in the question.
That is because the verb is in the base form of the infinitive.
Note we don't use DO or DOES in questions
that have the verb TO BE or modal verbs such as can, must, might or should.
Let's look at the auxiliary DID.
To make a question in a simple past tense in English,
we normally put the auxiliary DID at the beginning of the question before the subject.
And just like in the present tense,
after the subject is the verb in its base form which means the infinitive without TO at the beginning.
Look at this affirmative sentence.
You lived in Spain. How can we make this a question?
We add DID at the beginning so it becomes
Did you live in Spain?
We use the verb form LIVE and not LIVED because the auxilIary DID shows that the question is in the past tense.
DID is also used with he, she and it.
So with this affirmative sentence
She lived in Japan.
To make it a question in the past tense, we say:
Did she live in Japan?
Again we use DID for questions in the past except with TO BE and modal verbs.
Compare these questions:
Do you speak English?
Did you speak English?
The only difference between a question in the present tense and the past tense
is the first part... DO or DID.
And look at these two questions:
Does he speak Italian?
Did he speak Italian?
The only difference between a question
in the present tense and the past tense, when it refers to third person he/she and it,
is the first part... DOES or DID.
Look at this question.
Do you do exercises every day?
Why are there two DOs in this question?
The first DO is necessary because we're making a question in the simple present tense.
The second DO is from the verb TO DO
you do exercises.
What happens if instead of YOU, we're asking about another person?
Does she do exercises every day?
We use DOES because it is necessary for
simple present tense questions for third person.
In this case for she, does she.
Again, DO appears because you do exercises.
It appears as DO and not DOES
because the verb needs to be in the base form of the infinitive.
Of course in the past tense you would say:
Did you do exercises yesterday?
DID is an auxiliary which is needed to make a question.
DO is from the verb TO DO.
DO and DOES for emphasis.
Sometimes DO, DOES and DID are used in
positive sentences to give special emphasis that what you say is true,
despite what the other person thinks.
Note that when speaking, the word DO, DOES or DID is stressed.
I do want to go.
We put stress on the word DO to emphasize that we really want to go even if you think it is not true.
I did study for the test.
Contrary to what you may believe, yes I studied.
Notice that DID is used for positive sentences in the past tense
and that the main verb is in its base form.
Yes, he does like broccoli.
You may be surprised but yes, he likes broccoli.
You do need tickets for the event.
I am emphasizing the fact that tickets are needed despite what you think.
You may also be interested in our lesson about the difference between DO and MAKE
so have a look at that.
I hope you found this lesson about the difference between DO, DOES, DID and DONE useful.
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