What is another word for Did?
832 synonyms found
Pronunciation:
[ dˈɪd], [ dˈɪd], [ d_ˈɪ_d]
Table of Contents
-
n.
-
•
- Arose,
- Became,
- Bestrode,
- Begat,
- Befell,
- Began,
- bade,
- awoke,
- ate,
- Awoken.
-
v.
• acted (verb)
- Acted,
- executed,
- Officiated,
- Exercised,
- Worked,
- Appeared,
- moved,
- Operated,
- Perpetrated,
- Transacted,
- Endeavored,
- functioned,
- Comported,
- labored,
- Performed,
- reacted,
- done,
- Behaved,
- conducted.
• behaved (verb)
- Proceeded,
- practiced,
- Deported.
• ventured (verb)
- pursued,
- campaigned,
- Ventured,
- Undertaken,
- Schemed,
- Undertook,
- Maneuvered,
- initiated.
-
Other synonyms:
• Other relevant words:
- sustain,
- food grain,
- be,
- tackle,
- aim,
- experience,
- unfeignedly,
- hike,
- promote,
- chance on,
- formation,
- beat,
- father,
- introduce,
- give,
- hold,
- cause,
- heighten,
- heave,
- light upon,
- resurrect,
- softly,
- well,
- pull off,
- order,
- learning ability,
- recruit,
- figure,
- brainpower,
- shuffle,
- stool,
- conduct,
- farm,
- computer architecture,
- humour,
- enrol,
- wage hike,
- on the nose,
- heavy,
- light,
- happen upon,
- obtain,
- mental capacity,
- get by,
- finagle,
- put on,
- sire,
- ascent,
- faux,
- put forward,
- key,
- profit,
- invent,
- life history,
- utterly,
- rise,
- middling,
- last,
- rouge,
- grow,
- constitution,
- pass water,
- incisively,
- throw,
- erect,
- contend,
- devote,
- laboured,
- consistency,
- subsist,
- come upon,
- strive,
- ingest,
- piddle,
- manufacture,
- moderate,
- too,
- dope,
- catch up with,
- bear,
- endure,
- educate,
- evoke,
- in full,
- establishment,
- nominate,
- skin color,
- expend,
- mood,
- intelligibly,
- regularise,
- come across,
- conjure up,
- counterbalance,
- hokey,
- attempt,
- anneal,
- urinate,
- heart,
- pinhead,
- touched,
- climb,
- capture,
- get along,
- spend a penny,
- silent person,
- own,
- proficient,
- engender,
- regulate,
- adept,
- strain,
- fake,
- green groceries,
- dwell,
- soundbox,
- go forward,
- on the dot,
- institutionalise,
- turn over,
- hugely,
- live on,
- bouncy,
- assign,
- only,
- get down,
- staggeringly,
- patently,
- fabricate,
- consistence,
- stick,
- infix,
- regularize,
- position,
- snappishness,
- enhance,
- get into,
- spunk,
- take in,
- dead body,
- practised,
- piece of music,
- clean,
- extend to,
- fictive,
- intrust,
- ejaculate,
- couch,
- compute,
- put option,
- get under one’s skin,
- in point of fact,
- build,
- fare,
- humor,
- just,
- solve,
- in truth,
- arouse,
- governance,
- drop,
- sincerely,
- spring up,
- form,
- number,
- expert,
- easy,
- resolutely,
- plainly,
- fit,
- alone,
- land,
- thinly,
- understandably,
- go into,
- ca-ca,
- dummy up,
- induce,
- cum,
- participate,
- bestow,
- catch,
- get hold of,
- granulate,
- comprise,
- fire,
- complete,
- even up,
- pretty,
- institute,
- patch up,
- elicit,
- populate,
- green goods,
- defecate,
- bring on,
- behavior,
- jolly,
- calculate,
- bring out,
- pee-pee,
- know,
- add,
- examen,
- hold out,
- plain,
- stretch,
- wee-wee,
- penning,
- fictional,
- draw,
- take a crap,
- composing,
- evolve,
- brand,
- seemingly,
- stirred,
- issue forth,
- moderately,
- give birth,
- pay,
- deathly,
- wit,
- strictly,
- contrived,
- authorship,
- theme,
- through with,
- pull in,
- cereal,
- for certain,
- acclivity,
- levy,
- physical composition,
- score,
- fabricated,
- lay down,
- get up,
- ambit,
- beget,
- contact,
- start,
- realize,
- season,
- feature,
- framework,
- pigment,
- good,
- right,
- fuck off,
- treacherously,
- exam,
- in spades,
- carry on,
- interrogation,
- sure enough,
- very,
- pique,
- kindle,
- make water,
- rattling,
- dead,
- assumed,
- invest,
- deliver,
- organize,
- mollify,
- set up,
- take a shit,
- arise,
- start out,
- nonplus,
- evenhandedly,
- caryopsis,
- render,
- range,
- springy,
- wont,
- move,
- chased,
- make out,
- groom,
- set,
- develop,
- biliousness,
- realise,
- harden,
- leaven,
- in reality,
- construct,
- pretended,
- treasonably,
- off-key,
- return,
- musical composition,
- authentically,
- perplex,
- gear up,
- manifestly,
- mystify,
- make-up,
- sure as shooting,
- nurture,
- lick,
- pass,
- swimmingly,
- wholly,
- ready,
- for sure,
- pretend,
- realized,
- hail,
- stimulate,
- meet,
- bugger off,
- by all odds,
- touch,
- find,
- report,
- invoke,
- administration,
- skillful,
- adopt,
- contribute,
- full,
- redact,
- gently,
- incur,
- consecrate,
- unwaveringly,
- faithlessly,
- organic structure,
- let,
- crap,
- progress to,
- amply,
- seminal fluid,
- begin,
- continue,
- torso,
- accede,
- hot,
- train,
- lifespan,
- make for,
- make do,
- shit,
- disposal,
- sure,
- call down,
- fall,
- scarcely,
- keep,
- cloth,
- add up,
- carry through,
- dumbbell,
- untrue,
- suffer,
- trust,
- vex,
- hard,
- barely,
- gather,
- arrangement,
- provoke,
- prove,
- seduce,
- parent,
- set out,
- reasonably,
- discover,
- charge,
- blank shell,
- upgrade,
- unquestionably,
- establish,
- shuffling,
- hand,
- go on,
- cast,
- effected,
- blank,
- survive,
- action,
- as a matter of fact,
- cypher,
- get ahead,
- substance,
- place,
- micturate,
- overly,
- lift,
- call forth,
- care,
- seed,
- aliveness,
- hold up,
- garden truck,
- tendency,
- stupefy,
- learn,
- reconcile,
- test,
- benefit,
- increase,
- puzzle out,
- sham,
- arrest,
- arrange,
- stir,
- inclination,
- amplification,
- established,
- carry off,
- peevishness,
- settle,
- elaborate,
- blusher,
- addition,
- handle,
- trunk,
- textile,
- ingrain,
- pay back,
- system,
- reach out,
- clear,
- carry out,
- riding habit,
- typography,
- gain ground,
- commence,
- grasp,
- properly,
- pass on,
- dedicate,
- larn,
- impart,
- confide,
- lifetime,
- through,
- totally,
- bewilder,
- alive,
- realised,
- reaching,
- to a fault,
- work,
- salary increase,
- organise,
- perpetrate,
- unrecorded,
- get to,
- supervise,
- convey,
- cope,
- solely,
- piss,
- sprightliness,
- wreak,
- biography,
- delusive,
- firm,
- inhabit,
- irritability,
- scarce,
- rear,
- scram,
- compensate,
- superintend,
- upraise,
- chasten,
- rule,
- get through,
- booby,
- put to death,
- drive,
- semen,
- get in,
- strained,
- receive,
- derive,
- all,
- play,
- nerve,
- frame,
- conciliate,
- arrive at,
- somewhat,
- use,
- relieve oneself,
- move into,
- come up,
- life sentence,
- steadfastly,
- securely,
- compass,
- rich person,
- make headway,
- machinate,
- abnormal,
- take,
- boob,
- bring in,
- cook up,
- obviously,
- real,
- strike,
- run,
- follow,
- substance abuse,
- wage increase,
- win,
- wealthy person,
- on the face of it,
- negociate,
- stilted,
- wee,
- institutionalize,
- advance,
- go in,
- cook,
- reckon,
- toughness,
- record,
- governing body,
- equipped,
- go,
- rightfully,
- correct,
- ostensibly,
- altogether,
- simulated,
- turn,
- conjure,
- fall upon,
- life story,
- perfectly,
- earn,
- oversee,
- outlook,
- precisely,
- spirit,
- guarantee,
- emphatically,
- normalize,
- fix,
- completed,
- material,
- constitute,
- have got,
- consume,
- total,
- imitation,
- brain,
- lend,
- give rise,
- mistaken,
- buzz off,
- gratify,
- set about,
- behaviour,
- baffle,
- even off,
- candidly,
- on the button,
- embark,
- represent,
- surliness,
- yield,
- unreal,
- kick upstairs,
- insert,
- pull,
- live up to,
- tremendously,
- testing,
- undo,
- put up,
- super,
- pull ahead,
- uprise,
- brass,
- to the full,
- inscribe,
- occur,
- cipher,
- fill,
- metric grain,
- even out,
- puddle,
- practice,
- writing,
- wield,
- contract,
- name,
- resilient,
- organisation,
- passably,
- grapple,
- mindset,
- lay,
- interrogatory,
- scrutiny,
- whole,
- conform to,
- traitorously,
- paper,
- accept,
- lively,
- amount,
- war paint,
- fancied,
- wangle,
- irritation,
- amaze,
- birth,
- mind-set,
- life-time,
- flummox,
- descend,
- pose,
- bring about,
- bring forth,
- animation,
- fair,
- enkindle,
- initiate,
- exceedingly,
- make believe,
- texture,
- piece,
- aboveboard,
- exclusively,
- assume,
- enroll,
- outfitted,
- arrive,
- skilful,
- take a leak,
- exist,
- chance upon,
- suit,
- opus,
- take in charge,
- puzzle,
- liveliness,
- entrust,
- pee,
- orbit,
- work up,
- so,
- mother,
- deal,
- sour,
- living,
- devise,
- gravel,
- put down,
- pettishness,
- bring up,
- come in,
- personify,
- elevate,
- figure out,
- bring off,
- drug abuse,
- scope,
- possess,
- aright,
- take on,
- go along,
- affected,
- pay off,
- highly,
- dumbfound,
- send,
- exercise.
• Other relevant words (noun):
- apparently,
- exactly,
- openly,
- fictitious,
- habit,
- really,
- actually,
- certainly,
- acquire,
- distinctly,
- come,
- absolutely,
- brought up,
- easily,
- doings,
- have,
- live,
- govern,
- DO,
- confidently,
- factually,
- solidly,
- frankly,
- genuinely,
- temper,
- enter,
- commit,
- hardly,
- life,
- achieve,
- false,
- decisively,
- honestly,
- execute,
- raise,
- generate,
- fitted out,
- become,
- produce,
- decidedly,
- accomplished,
- reach,
- surely,
- gain,
- paint,
- temperament,
- fulfil,
- took care of,
- get,
- excessively,
- fetch,
- evidently,
- carried out,
- unnatural,
- artificial,
- perform,
- undertake,
- lightly,
- in fact,
- examination,
- smoothly,
- enormously,
- attain,
- makeup,
- making up,
- bring,
- made,
- purely,
- complexion,
- unmake,
- prepare,
- feigned,
- mettle,
- correctly,
- positively,
- proceed,
- fulfill,
- composition,
- pretend to be,
- verily,
- fairly,
- disposition,
- fully,
- work out,
- extremely,
- completely,
- clearly,
- nature,
- architecture,
- accomplish,
- dummy,
- satisfy,
- dogmatically,
- personality,
- make up,
- put,
- manage,
- create,
- firmly,
- organization,
- spend,
- mentality,
- assuredly,
- entirely,
- fabric,
- Definitively,
- indeed,
- body,
- make,
- originate,
- definitely,
- grain,
- truly.
How to use «Did» in context?
Everyone has done something they regret at one point or another. Here are a few examples:
1. I wish I hadn’t spent so much money on that new car.
2. I wish I had spent more time with my friends last night.
3. I wish I had just said no when he asked me to come over for coffee.
4. I wish I had never moved to this small town.
5. I wish I had just done what my mom told me to do.
6. I wish I had never started going to that party late every week.
Paraphrases for Did:
Paraphrases are highlighted according to their relevancy:
-
Independent
-
Coordinating conjunction
Doing.
-
Proper noun, singular
participants.
-
Noun, plural
Aces, Ashes, Ones, makes, sorts, towns, looks, kinds.
-
Adverb
better.
-
Verb, past tense
a-, absolutely, accepted, acknowledged, acquired, act, action, acts, added, addressed, adopted, advised, affected, afraid, agreed, agreement, ali, amended, angel, announced, applied, approved, arranged, assistance, assumed, ate, attempted, attended, authorized, awaited, baby, background, bag, baked, bar, beat, bin, booked, broke, brown, buddy, built, burned, busted, called, campaign, candidate, carved, case, cast, change, changed, checked, child, clay, cleaned, cleared, closed, collected, commissioned, committed, conceded, concerned, concluded, condemned, conducted, conferred, confessed, confirmed, considered, constituted, contained, contested, continued, contrary, convention, conveyed, cooked, corporation, cost, covered, crossed, cultural, dad, date, dated, decided, decision, declaration, declared, decreased, demonstrated, described, deserved, designed, destroyed, developed, dig, directorate, disputed, dissemination, divided, doc, donated, dreamed, drew, dried, dropped, drove, dude, earned, ec, effect, effected, effectively, elected, embargo, emphasized, employment, ended, endorsed, engaged, enough, enrolled, equal, escaped, established, estimated, eve, exactly, excuse, executed, expected, experience, experienced, explain, exploded, extended, faced, failed, fall, father, fear, feeling, fell, felt, figured, filled, fine, finished, fired, fixed, focused, focussed, follow, forced, forget, former, found, fulfilled, genus, girl, go, good, granted, grazed, guaranteed, handled, happy, hard, hat, haven, hello, hence, here, hired, history, hundred, hurt, identified, ignored, ii, imagined, impact, implemented, implied, imposed, improved, improvement, inability, included, increased, information, initiated, initiative, innocent, intended, invented, invested, invited, involved, iraq, job, joined, joke, kept, labour, laugh, laundering, lay, learned, leave, led, left, letter, level, lied, liked, limited, link, listed, loaded, locked, lost, loved, maintained, making, manager, marked, married, matched, mechanism, mind, mine, missed, mission, mode, mom, mother, mounted, moved, name, named, namely, needed, nevertheless, nice, nine, noted, nothing, noticed, observed, occupied, opened, opposed, ordered, organised, outlined, outside, owned, packed, paid, painted, papa, parked, permitted, pic, placed, planned, played, pleasant, pointed, posed, predicted, preferred, prepared, presented, pressed, previous, prior, procedure, proceedings, produced, promised, proposed, proved, pulled, pursued, quit, raised, read, realized, received, recognised, recognized, reflected, rejected, related, released, remembered, repeated, report, represented, requested, required, research, respect, respected, response, responsible, result, revealed, ripped, rolled, rose, rule, ruled, same, sat, satisfied, saved, saw, scared, secret, secured, seeing, seized, selected, sent, services, shared, shook, shot, shut, signed, silence, sir, smoked, smuggled, social, sold, somebody, something, son, sought, sound, sounded, spent, spoke, spotted, staged, statistical, stole, stopped, strange, stressed, struck, studied, suggested, supported, sweetheart, sweetie, swept, taught, thanks, therefore, things, town, transformed, transmitted, traveled, travelled, treasure, treated, tried, turned, two, understood, urge, used, vacation, violated, wait, wanted, warranted, washed, weakened, week, why, witness, won, work, worried, year, Abstained, Accounted, Achieved, Acted, Against, Aimed, Allowed, Amounted, Analyses, Answered, Appeared, Approached, Arose, Arrived, Asked, Assessed, Attacked, Attracted, Avoided, Awarded, Bailed, Became, Began, Behaved, Believed, Benefited, Betrayed, Blew, Borrowed, Bought, Bowled, Brought, Cared, Carried, Caught, Catered, Caused, Ceased, Challenged, Cheated, Chose, Cited, Claimed, Climbed, Dealt, Declined, Deemed, Deleting, Delivered, Demanded, Denied, Dialed, Died, Disappeared, Discussed, Drafted, Dragged, Eh, Emerged, Enabled, Encountered, Enjoyed, Entered, Envisaged, Everyone, Everything, Examined, Exercised, Existed, Explained, Fainted, Feared, Fought, Filed, Fled, Flew, Flipped, Followed, Forgot, Forwarded, Gained, Gave, Generated, Ginned, Went, Grew, Happened, Hast, Helped, women, Hesitated, Hoped, Indicated, Inflicted, Influenced, Installed, Instituted, Intervened, Introduced, Invoked, Issued, Jumped, K, Killed, Knocked, Knew, L, Lacked, Larvae, Lasted, Laughed, Launched, Listened, Lived, Lo, M, Managed, Meant, Met, Mentioned, Non, Nope, Notified, Obtained, Occurred, Offered, Operated, P, Participated, Passed, Performed, Picked, Rained, Ran, Reached, Referred, Refused, Regarded, Reiterated, Remained, Remarked, Rendered, Replied, Responded, Resulted, Returned, Rode, Screwed, Searched, Seemed, Served, Slept, Smelled, T, Took, Talked, Teamed, Told, Testified, Thanked, Threw, Transferred, Undertook, Upheld, V, Vetoed, Viewed, Visited, Voted, Waited, Walked, Watched, Wore, Wept, Wished, Withdrew, Without, Wondered, Worked, Wrestled, Wrote, Yielded, Yourself, ISN, no., 19, 69, 84, Coincided, Commented, Complained, Consented, Conned, Consisted, Contributed, Cooperated, Corresponded, Crawled, Created, Cried, Popped, Poured, Prevented, Proceeded, Promoted, Prompted, Purchased, Punched, Pushed, Squeezed, Stayed, Stepped, Stood, started, Submitted, Succeeded, Suffered, Summoned, Survived, Swam, Switched, Swore, Alex, Lisa, Marni, Persons, Friends, Measures, Pupils, summarized, tabled, actions, cases, reacted, responses, practices, makes, briefed, showed, collaborated, reasons, dared, reproduced, mechanisms, materials, boys, underestimated, recalled, OJ, XC2, 303, PAGES, WASN, kicked, reaffirmed, interviewed, examples, backtracked, opted, redesigned, highlighted, majored, hasn’t, pissed, killer, shit, suicide, ok, administration, follow-up, mr, o, pa, fucked, 1985, sha, didn, doesn, wouldn, knowed, i.e., ‘all, ‘m, kiiled, made-a, -did, «s, ‘veworked, -have, youhad, reaily, ‘ai, -is, d-d-did, stillhave, justgot.
-
Verb, gerund or present participle
feeling, getting, looking, seeing, wearing, Carrying.
-
Verb, base form
ace, dis, henry, wager, havea, -did, -yes.
-
Coordinating conjunction
На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.
На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.
Предложения
What they did last season was incredible.
То, что они сделали в предыдущем сезоне, было невероятно, конечно.
Finally when they did find water it was too bitter to drink.
Когда они сделали по глотку, напиток им показался слишком горьким, чтобы его допивать.
What they did to you was mild.
They ran faster with others than they did by themselves.
С ними поступили еще быстрее, чем они делали со своими противниками.
They do exist in real life-at least, they did.
Они действительно существуют в реальной жизни — по крайней мере, они это сделали.
Let’s not forget what they did.
Но мы не должны забывать то, что они сделали.
What behooved to be done, they did.
То, что необходимо было им сделать, они сделали.
Not everyone can agree that what they did was problematic.
Не все могут согласиться, что то, что они сделали, было проблематично.
Because that’s basically what they did with the latest update.
Потому что это в основном то, что они сделали с последним обновлением.
And we know what they did next.
It’s insane what they did.
He underlined that they did so to exert pressure on Greece.
Он подчеркнул, что они сделали это, чтобы оказать давление на Грецию.
I appreciate what they did, Woodley shared.
Я очень ценю то, что они сделали , — поделился Вудли.
Luckily we grabbed it before they did.
К счастью, нам удалось перехватить их раньше, чем они совершили эти акты.
What they did was improper and illegal.
То, что делала новая администрация, было незаконным и просто неправильным».
Scientists claimed they did not know what caused this.
Ученые утверждают, что они не знают, чем это вызвано.
What they did was outright deceit.
То, что сделал в своей жизни, было никчемным.
Maybe they did get the journey they needed.
Скорее всего, мы получим то путешествие, в котором нуждаемся.
They agreed they did not conspire.
Считалось, что они не станут вступать в заговоры.
Strangely enough, they didn’t.
Предложения, которые содержат they did
Результатов: 60984. Точных совпадений: 60984. Затраченное время: 371 мс
Documents
Корпоративные решения
Спряжение
Синонимы
Корректор
Справка и о нас
Индекс слова: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900
Индекс выражения: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200
Индекс фразы: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200
The word «they» is a personal pronoun, a word that takes the place of a noun for people or things.
The word or words that a pronoun replaces is called its antecedent.
Another word for «they» is the noun, nouns, or pronoun that it is replacing.
The pronoun «they» is a plural pronoun that functions as the subject of a sentence or a clause.
Examples:
The sisters proudly served the dinner that they had prepared.
- The pronoun «they» replaces the noun «sisters» as the subject of the relative clause.
Branches and twigs littered the lawn. They were deposited by the storm.
- The pronoun «they» replaces the nouns «branches and twigs» as the subject of the second sentence.
They are the new neighbors.
- The pronoun «they» takes the place of the noun «neighbors» as the subject of the sentence.
The other pronouns that can take the place of the personal pronoun «they» are:
- them, a personal pronoun that takes the place of a noun, nouns, or pronoun as the object of a verb or a preposition;
- theirs, a possessive pronoun that takes the place of a noun belonging to two or more people or things;
- their, a possessive adjective that takes the place of a possessive noun;
- themselves, a reflexive pronoun that takes the place of a noun, nouns, or pronoun to reflect back to the noun it replaces;
- these, a demonstrative pronoun that takes the place of a noun, nouns, or pronoun for specific people or things indicated near in place or time;
- those, a demonstrative pronoun that takes the place of a noun, nouns, or pronoun for specific people or things indicated far in place or time.
DO – DOES – DID – DONE
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 / 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
Lets look at its form in the simple present tense.
TO DO – 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 in the washing machine)
- They do their chores when they arrive home.
(Chores is 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)
TO DO – Past Tense
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 is only one form of the verb in the past tense…. DID.
- He did a magic trick. (Yes, and everyone was amazed… wooow!)
- 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 5 hours instead of 10)
- She did ballet after school last year. (This year she is doing something different)
TO DO – Past Participle
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.
TO DO – 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 – The second do means mow)
Sometimes Do, Does, and Did are used as auxiliaries to make questions in English.
Let’s start with DO and DOES:
DO / DOES – For Questions
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 will 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 (can, must, might, should etc.)
DID – For Questions
Let’s look at the auxiliary DID.
To make a question in the 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 with 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 show 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 such as Can.
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, or it) is the first part… DOES or DID.
Auxiliary and Verb together
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 are 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 are 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 / 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/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 that fact that tickets ARE needed despite what you think.)
Summary Chart
For today, I want to go over the expression “little did I know”. We can also change the word “I” to other words such as “he”, “she”, “we”, etc. We use this when we want to talk about a person who doesn’t know an important piece of information about a situation, but they find out about it after it’s too late. Here are some ways to use it in sentences.
I bought my house last year. Little did I know that the real estate market would drop so much. I wish I had waited.
We invested money in ABC Company. Little did we know they would go bankrupt. I wish we had invested in another company.
My sister really regrets marrying her husband. Little did she know when she married him that he would cheat on her all the time. She’s filing for divorce now.
My brother and his wife recently moved to a city on the coast. Little did they know there would be so many mosquitoes there in the summer. I hope they’re ok.
With this expression, the information that the person didn’t know about is always negative. The idea is that if they had known that information before, they would have made a different choice. Therefore, this is a way to express regret for a bad choice in the past.
We use “would” + verb to explain the negative situation after “little did (I) know”.
Please note that we can use the word “that” to link “little did (I) know” to the next sentence, but this is optional. If we omit it, the sentence still makes sense.