"Dare" with and without "to"

Question

To my surprise, there's a missing question about this particularly interesting verb, dare. All I know about it is the fact it can be in two forms, as an auxiliary (without to: "I dare not mention their names") and main (with to: "Did anyone dare to admit it?") verb and the difference has something to do with agreeing with subject. Can somebody explain in a greater detail?

Oops. Had submitted an answer to this when half asleep that was completely wrong, as pointed out by @Matt. Duly deleted. And apologies for any confusion caused by my nonfunctioning brain. — , Sep 26 '11 at 20:05
Could be seen dare like need? Only in negative or interrogative the use ofdare without to and auxiliary means it doesn`t happen,it is a subjunctive.The another wise it is a common conjugate. — Mihai Antonio Todoran, Mar 16 '24 at 15:35

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

17

Dare is a semi-modal verb. The speaker can choose whether to use the auxiliary "to" when forming negative and interrogative sentences. For example, "I don't dare (to) go" and "I dare not go" are both correct. Similarly "Dare you go?" and "Do you dare (to) go?" are both correct.

Taken from the Wiktionary.

Note that when dare means challenge, it requires to, as in:

I challenge you to ask her out.

I dare you to ask her out.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

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answered Sep 26 '11 at 12:01

Frantisek

21,938

Yes, I think, that's a better example of the contrast between the semi-modal and lexical uses. – Barrie England Sep 26 '11 at 12:11
Uh… what would be wrong with 'I dare you: ask her out', please? – Robbie Goodwin Jan 12 '17 at 00:34
1

To Robbie's comment: that's an entirely different structure with the colon, so nothing's wrong with that either, of course. – Sz. Jan 23 '22 at 23:51

"Dare" with and without "to"

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