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If take question 'Do you want to eat?' as example, I don't understand meaning of 'do' because:

  • to do something in my understanding is to take some actions, to want something is not an action, it is not something, that you 'do'.
  • And in form of simple statement this question will be 'I want to eat', not 'I do want to eat' (right?).

What meaning of 'do' in this question?

Gill Bates
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    Yes, I DO want to eat. I am very hungry. And eating is certainly an action – mplungjan Aug 09 '13 at 12:49
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    Unless you are looking for an answer steeped in heavy linguistics, this question would be better placed at our sister site for English Learners. – tchrist Aug 09 '13 at 13:21
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    BS. The rule is very simple to state: "If an auxiliary verb is required, and there isn't one already, use do." There are all sorts of cases where an auxiliary verb is required, and if one isn't already provided (like be with progressive or passive or predicate adjective or predicate noun, or have with perfect), then you reach for do. It's a dummy verb, like dummy it or there. If that's heavy linguistics, then there are weak language muscles around; it's not third-grade linguistics, true, but it's simple enough if one is interested. – John Lawler Aug 09 '13 at 14:58

2 Answers2

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"Do" is an auxiliary verb that is compulsory for questions in English.... unless you have other auxiliaries like "can, may, could" etc. in your sentence/question. Then you omit using "do".

"Want" may also be used as an auxiliary verb, it is, however, used with "to", e.g. "want to eat". It is the same with "have to". Both times, you need "do" to form a question: "Do I have to go to bed?", "Do you want to eat?"

Referring to the comment below: In questions where the question word is subject, you do not need the auxiliary verb "do". Example: "What is wrong with the house?"

"Says who?" and "You called him?" are grammatically incorrect questions as they should always begin with a question word or the verb. So it should rather be "Who says that?" (=> NB: no "do", because "who" is subject) and "Did you call him?", respectively.

Puklen
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  • Do and other helping verbs are not essential to form questions. Word order or intonation alone can work. You called him? Says who? Also words that can indicate a query. What hit me? – bib Aug 09 '13 at 13:00
  • (A) A tip; avoid saying something is "compulsory", "obligatory", and don't say "never", and "always" when explaining English grammar. (B) Really? (A) Yes. Nearly always there are exceptions to the rule. – Mari-Lou A Aug 10 '13 at 01:29
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In English certain questions in the present tense are formed with the words do and does (known as auxiliary verbs) at the beginning of a sentence. For example:

I want to study medical science. The question form of this would be, do you want to study medical science?

So it doesn't take the literal meaning of doing something in this case.

About the second part of your question, we do use I do want to eat. It's a normal emphatic statement. The difference between I want to eat vs. I do want to eat is that the second emphasizes on the action of eating and can be used specially when you are very hungry. The first doesn't connote that meaning and is simply saying that you want to eat.

TrevorD
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Noah
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