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Guest
#94071 Thu, 28 Apr 05 01:38 AM
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Why is the correct sentence "Did you eat breakfast?" (Not....."Did you ate breakfast?")
Breakfast is in the past, therefore, shouldn't you use a past tense verb?
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paco2004
#94074 Thu, 28 Apr 05 02:12 AM
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In English you can say "I eat breakfast every morning". When you ask it to somebody, you say "Do you eat breakfast every morning?". Here "do" is an auxiliary verb used for question and negation. When you talk about a past event of eating breakfast, you say "I ate breakfast this morning". When you ask it to somebody, you say "Did you eat breakfast this morning?". Here "did" is the past form for "do". So you can think: "did eat" = "ate".
paco
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Joined on
Wed, Nov 17 2004
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In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.
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temico
#94177 Thu, 28 Apr 05 01:17 PM
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The verb in the sentence, "Did you eat breakfast?" is "did eat" and not only "eat". "did eat" ="ate"
e.g.
a) I DID EAT breakfast at home. = I ATE breakfast at home.
b) I DID GO to the movies last night. = I WENT to the movies last night.
c) I DID SEE the plane flying over. = I SAW the plane flying over.
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Joined on
Thu, Apr 21 2005
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khoff
#94330 Thu, 28 Apr 05 08:09 PM
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Just to expand a bit on temico's reply - it's the "did" portion of the verb that gets inverted with the subject to form a question, and also links with "not" to form a negation. So we say:
Did you eat breakfast? I didn't eat breakfast.
(NOT "ate you breakfast?" "I ate not breakfast.")
Certain verbs, like "to be" never take the "did" part (sorry, I don't actually know what it's called) so we say
Were you hungry? No, I wasn't hungry.
(NOT "did you be hungry? No, I didn't be hungry)
Someone else on the board can tell you which other verbs don't take "did", and why, and what they're called.
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Joined on
Sun, Mar 6 2005
Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth
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Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert)
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temico
#94371 Thu, 28 Apr 05 11:34 PM
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To khoff,
Which of the following expressions is correct in AmE, may I ask? Or are they both correct??
a) You ATE breakfast, right?
b) DID you EAT breakfast, right?
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khoff
#94383 Fri, 29 Apr 05 12:56 AM
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If you're going to form the question that way, A sounds fine, beause it means "You ate breakfast. Is that right?" B should be either "Did you eat breakfast?" (a simple question)or, if you want more emphasis, "You did eat breakfast, right?" (You did eat breakfast. Is that right?)
Hope that helps.
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