Q: ‘Do/Does’ is used as supporting verb to make positive sentences negative, yes/no questions, and wh- questions. But this does not happen with the verb ‘to be.’ WHY? ‘Am’ is used as main verb.

Eg.
I am.
I am not.
Am I?
Am I not?
Who am I?
Who am I not?

Please explain.
1) Why is it so?
2) is ‘am’ used as supporting verb? Yes? No? (Simple present)

Answer: You’re right that the verb ‘be’ is an exception to the normal rule. This is quite common in languages, in fact, and linguists believe it is because ‘be’ is such a common word that we learn it before we have internalised the grammatical system. In other words, we learn to use ‘be’ before we know any grammar patterns and it simply has its own very simple system (just add ‘not’).

Q: It happens with ‘have’

You have not
Have you?
Have you not?
What have you?
What have you not?

You had not
Had you?
Had you not?
What had you?
What had you not?

Other verbs?

Answer: ‘Have’ is also an extremely common verb and the explanation is the same. However, although the forms you give as examples are possible, we generally see them as old-fashioned in modern English and use some form of do to form negatives and questions. Thus don’t you have? is much more common than haven’t you? and you don’t have… is more common than you have not….

Answer: Please note that in all of this I am talking about have as a main verb, not as an auxiliary in perfect constructions or as a tag question created with have as an auxiliary verb.

Q: You added, don’t you have. What is proper place of NOT

don’t you have, means
do not you have?
Do you not have?

Don’t you have?
Do not you have?
Do you not have?

Answer: Don’t you have… is a contracted form of Do you not have…

Answer: The uncontracted form sounds quite formal and is much less common.

Q: If it is so, (I think) we do have these exceptions:

DO can be used with BE

do be. (do for emphasizing)
do not be. or don’t be. (negative imperative)
what are other exceptions?

Answer: I’m not sure I’d call those exceptions, but in any case, I can’t think of any other cases off the top of my head.

Answer: I can say fairly confidently that there are no other exceptions in English as it is commonly spoken in the UK and North America. There could be others, but I’m afraid your question would take some time to research properly. I’d suggest asking in the English Stack Exchange for ideas.

Q: In the Simple Present Tense, we often use ‘do’ and ‘does’ as auxiliary verbs to emphasize positive sentences and commands. For example, ‘I do speak’ and ‘He does come’. However, when ‘do’ is used as a main verb, can we also use ‘do’ or ‘does’ for emphasis in sentences like:

I do do.
He does do.

And similarly, can we use ‘do’ for emphasis in commands like:

Do do.

I’d like to understand if ‘do’ and ‘does’ can be used to emphasize when ‘do’ is functioning as a main verb, such as ‘I do my homework’ or ‘He does the dishes.’

Is it common to use ‘do’ and ‘does’ for emphasis in such sentences?

Additionally, can they be used in commands like:

Do do your work.

Answer: Yes, it is grammatically fine, including in commands (imperatives). As you suspected, these sentences sound a bit unusual because of the double “do”, but they are grammatical.

Answer: I should mention that “do” as a main verb requires an object or a complement, so the first set of sentences should be something like:

Answer: I do do (well).
He does do (a good job).
Do do (that).

Answer: I hope that helps.

Q: Could you please explain the grammatical differences between the following sentences:

‘It is a bus.’
‘There is a bus.’
‘There goes the bus!’

Additionally, could you clarify the grammatical roles of the words ‘there’ and ‘bus’ in these sentences? Specifically, are they considered dummy subjects, subjects, adverbs of place, or nouns?

Answer: Sure, I’ll try to help.

Answer: It is a bus – in this sentence, the speaker/writer is identifying something (“It”). “It” is a dummy subject.

Answer: There is a bus – “There” is an adverb, introducing the subject of the sentence “a bus”. The normal word order of the sentence is inverted.

Answer: There goes the bus – “There” is an adverb of place. It indicates a particular place or space (while in the previous sentence, in the most common use of “There is”, “There” indicates the existence of something, with a weaker meaning of pointing to a particular place or space). The normal word order is inverted too. The subject is “the bus”.

Answer: I hope that helps.

KesariSir ☕