Grammar Toolbox: Do-support / Did-support

Questions

Do you know how to ask questions in English? Compare:

• Liker du å synge? - Do you like to sing?
• Spiller han tennis? - Does he play tennis?
• Bor de sammen? - Do they live together?

With main verbs like these (there are hundreds of them), English needs do-support. Note that the main verbs do not change: You cannot say *Does he plays tennis?

Negations

Much the same thing happens in negations (not-sentences):

• Jeg liker ikke å synge. - I do not like singing.
• Han spiller ikke tennis. - He does not play tennis.
• De bor ikke sammen. - They do not live together.

Did-support

Questions and negations about the past have did-support:

• Did he run yesterday?
• I did not ask.

This is almost the same as with do-support. In fact it is easier, because we use did only. But remember, the main verb must be in the infinitive. You cannot say *Did he ran or *I did not asked.

Auxiliary verbs

So far we have dealt with main verbs, which need do-support. If the sentence already has an auxiliary verb (hjelpeverb), there is no need for do­­-support:

• Have you heard the news? I have not heard the news.
• Is he doing his homework now? He is not doing his homework now.
• Can you tell the difference? I cannot tell the difference.

Wh-words

What, who, which and whose can function as subject (doer of the verb). Then we cannot use do-support:

• Who killed the bird?
• What happened next?
• Which team won the cup?
• Whose parents complained the most?

But when they are not the subject, we must use do/did:

• What did you tell her?