I have a question about Grammar that has been perplexing me for a while, and hopefully the good people out there who know better English than I do might be able to help me!
This actually came to me while I was reading a badly translated script, which is unimportant, but it made me think;
Why is it that we say, "What did he/she say?" or "What did I say?" even when it is past tense?
When something has been said, then shouldn't it be "What did I said" even though this sounds grammatically incorrect to me.
However, as I understand it, you would use the phrase "I said", "What was it he [had] said?" and the like.
As a follow-up question to those kind enough to answer, is there a difference between 'do' and 'have' that allows the different conjugation of the verb 'to say' in the different examples, or is this just simply a case of the strange way grammar works?
Any help is of course, greatly appreciated. Thanking the responders in advance.