do/does/did A Study of Teaching the Auxiliary Verbs do /does /did to Beginning Learners of EFL Yasuhiro Fujiwara do/does/did Abstract Mastery of the auxiliary verbs do/does/did, conventionally termed as dummy do when used in interrogative and negative sentences, is often regarded as having difficult syntax by beginning learners of EFL. Failure to master this point is likely to cause a considerable damage to the proceeding language learning process. This article presents a practical way of teaching these particular auxiliary verbs that is designed to avoid the aforementioned failure. This approach is based on an idea concerning the relations between those auxiliary verbs and main verbs; the former being embedded in the latter in the affirmative sentences on the deep-structure level, and whereas the former are presented in interrogative and negative sentences. Though this idea is similar to that of generative grammar, a basic difference between the two will be discussed. Key words: dummy do, main verbs, deep structure, generative grammar Received September
SV do/does/did do/does/did do/does/did do/ does/did do/does/did 1. 1. 1 be He is Mr. Jones. Is he Mr. Jones? / He is not Mr. Jones. He plays baseball. Is he plays baseball? / He is not plays baseball. They play baseball. They are not play baseball. / Are they play baseball?
do/does/did He played baseball. He is not played baseball. / Is he played baseball? be do be do They do their homework. They are not do their homework. They do not their homework. Are they do their homework? Do they their homework? b b do do 1. 2 do/does/did Marianne Celce-Murcia Diane Larsen-Freeman THE GRAMMAR BOOK Teaching Suggestions Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K. Pullum AStudent s Introduction to English Grammar dummy do do/does/did plays played play
2. 2. 1 play do PLAY plays does PLAY played did PLAY They play baseball. / He plays baseball. / He played baseball. They do PLAY baseball. / He does PLAY baseball. / He did PLAY baseball. He went there. He did GO there. 2. 2 Present Past PresentPast Present s do s do played play PAST played did PLAY do do-support
do/does/did do do do do do do not do not Radford do be do do Sarah smiled. smiled did smile PAST Process 2. 3 He came here yesterday. He did COME here yesterday. COME did COME Don t beat around the bush. Tell me the truth now. Don t be afraid. Do TELL me the truth now. Do Don t Do be do do
Little did he KNOW that she loved him. 2. 4 He does RUN fast. He runs fast. He can RUN fast. He must RUN fast. does RUN He runs fast. He isn t can run fast. / He doesn t can run fast. He isn t must run fast. / He doesn t must run fast. Do you SWIM? Yes, I do. / No, I don t do Can you SWIM? Yes, I can. / No, I can t. can Yes, I swim. / No, IdonotSWIM. swim Yes, I swim. Yes, I do SWIM. SWIM No, I do not SWIM. SWIM Yes, I do. / No, I don t. Yes, I can SWIM. / No, I can t SWIM. SWIM
do/does/did Yes, I can. / No, I can t. Thomson & Martinet Do you smoke? Yes, I smoke. Yes, I do. do can can yes/no He runs fast, doesn t he? He runs fast, or doesn t he RUN fast? He can t RUN fast, can he? He can t RUN fast, or can he RUN fast? does can 2. 5 do do do do/does /did do They do the dishes. / He does the dishes. / He did the dishes. They do DO the dishes. / He does DO the dishes. / He did DO the dishes. Did he DO the dishes? Did he WASH thedishes? do 2. 6 She has arrived home. Does she have arrived home? Did she has arrive home?
She doesn t have arrived home. She didn t has arrive home. has arrived have has Has she arrived home? 2. 7 Tell me. When did he LEAVE? Tell me when he did LEAVE. Tell me. When will he LEAVE? Tell me when he will LEAVE. did LEAVE left Tell me when he left. 2. 8 do yes/no Wh- do 3. 3. 1 Appendix
do/does/did do/does/did 3. 2 3. 3
pp. do/does/did p. p. p. p. p. p. Marianne Celce-Murcia & Diane Larsen-Freeman 1999 THE GRAMMAR BOOK An ESL/EFL Teacher s Course 2 nd.ed. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, p.191 & p.206 Marianne Celce-Murcia & Diane Larsen-Freemanp p. Rodney Huddleson & Geoffrey K. Pullum 2005 A Student sintroduction to English Grammar Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 38 p. p. p. p. p.
do/does/did Radford, A. pp. p. p. Radford, A. pp. Thomson A. J.&MartinetA.V. A PracticalEnglish Grammar Oxford University Press Tokyo p. pp. Appendix He plays tennis. He not play tennis. he play tennis? He plays tennis. plays They play tennis. They not play tennis. they play tennis? play They play tennis. play He does his homework every day. does They do their homework every day. do He does his homework every day. He not his homework every day. he his homework every day? They do their homework every day. They their homework every day. they their homework every day? not