ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: What did he say? What was it he said?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:50:00 GMT

Thank you very much for the swift and consise reply.

Re: What did he say? What was it he said?

CalifJim — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:08:29 GMT

The auxiliary verb carries the tense. did shows the past. (Otherwise it would be do or does.) You can't indicate tense twice in the same clause. (*What did I said?) The main verb shows the past tense ONLY when no auxiliary verb is present to do the job! (I said so.)

Re: What did he say? What was it he said?

Philip — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:59:03 GMT

Why is it that we say, "What did he/she say?" or "What did I say?" even when it is past tense?
We use 'did' in making a past tense sentence interrogative or negative, using the base form of the verb.

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?
What did you say ~ What have you said.

What did he say? What was it he said?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:42:19 GMT

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.