In Unit 3, we were asked to discuss a grammar point that would be challenging to explain. For me, one point would be how do we know whether to begin questions with either a form of 'do' or 'be. This came to my attention because I am similarly struggling with the correct ways to ask questions in my study of French grammar.
At first, I thought of the difference being in whether the question was about an action in general or something more specific. (e.g.: Do you go there often? Are you going there tomorrow? Are you going now?)
I noticed that the forms are similar, as far a word order: do/be subject verb adverb/object? However, with do the infinitive of the verb is used and with be we use the present participle of the verb. To make it a negative, a contraction is used: don't, doesn't, aren't, isn't
The meaning for both forms is to ask a direct question, and I couldn't distinguish why there is a difference in auxiliary verbs.
I was looking at the tense of the verbs. For instance in the above example, do is used for a recurring action, while be is used for future and present. However, for a different verb, this didn't seem to hold: (e.g. Do you want ice cream all year? Do you want ice cream for your party next week? Do you want some ice cream? but Are you singing in the school choir? Are/do you sing next week? Are you singing in the shower?) Again, looking only at the tense of the main verb.
I couldn't see a pattern for when one or the other is used, except that it 'sounds right'!
However, after I posted my dilemma for discussion with my classmates, I received some clarification. The key is the tense of the main verb, but the distinction is between progressive tenses (present, past or future) and simple tenses. For progressive tenses, we use "to be" (Are you singing, will you be singing, were you singing?) but for simple tenses, we use forms of "to do" (do you sing, did you sing?) or the auxiliary "will" (will you sing?)
These aren't all the possibilities, as there are other auxiliaries such as "would" and "could" and "can" that make the question more suggestive, but that is another line of enquiry.
I believe I have gained some more understanding of the issue, but sometimes I think I understand French grammar better than I do English!
Resources:
Galetcaia, T. (2018, Oct. 22) Questions and Comments About Unit 3 Readings [reply to post] Message posted to https://universityofmanitoba.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/310890/discussions/threads/557609/View
No comments:
Post a Comment