“Do” Questions & Negatives – DO, DOES, DON’T, DOESN’T

Hi there. My name's Ronnie, and I have a question for you. Do you like traveling? I do. And

let's play a fun little game. I'm going to spin the globe - this thing's called a globe

- and wherever my finger lands, I shall go there next. I can close my eyes, too, to make

it also more dramatic. Oh, it looks like I'm going to South America. Wow. Looks like I'm

going to Brazil again. Thank you, spin the globe. I'm going to Belém, Brazil. So, all

of you people watching in Belém, Brazil, I'll be seeing you soon. You kind of live

on the equator. But let's get down to this lesson. The basic English of "do". We talk

about everyday actions, and we also talk about opinions. So, my first question to you was

do you like traveling? Or I can say, do you like to travel? Now, the thing that you have

to remember about this verb is, even though we're talking about everyday actions or opinions,

we have to be careful with your subject. So, if it is "I", "you", "we" - meaning "we's

going to include myself and more people", or "they" - now, "they" means other people

over there. Those - they, they, they, they. Okay? We have to use - for the question form

"do". So, I have to say, for example, "Do you like traveling?" Okay? "Do I want a beer?"

Yes. Now, you're thinking, "Ronnie, why are you talking to yourself?" Oh, sorry. Oops.

Because everyone talks to themselves, and it's natural, it's normal, and you have to

have an inner dialogue. One really cool thing about learning English or learning another

language is, if your internal dialogue - that means the one voice in your head, just the

one - if it speaks to you in another language, or the language you're trying to learn, that's

a really good thing. If you can think in English, that means that you're on your way to becoming

bilingual or fluent in the language. Congratulations. That's amazing. So, of course, you're going

to have your native language in your head, but if you can get yourself to even think

in English, like, "Oh, do I want to go to the store now? Do I want to ride my bike?"

If you can think to yourself in English, that's going to be really cool, and it'll help you.

We and they, okay? Well, I've said that already. Look at me repeating myself. Do we, do I,

do you, and do they, and then we're going to put a verb, okay? These are everyday actions,

and it's in the present tense because they're things that we do and all that stuff. It's

not the past yet, but we have to be careful if we have "he", "she", and "it". Now, I like

to say, "He shit", so we have to say "does". So, you can remember this, "Does he shit?"

Yes, he does. He's a human. So, "does he" plus the base verb, "does she" plus the base

verb, "does it" plus the base verb, and "it". Hmm. You could talk about something like an

inanimate object, like, "Oh, this globe, does it spin?" Spin means turn around. Yes, it

does spin, or if you talk about an animal, you say, "Oh, no. Does it bite?" Yes, it does.

Watch out. So, be careful in the question form. You have to say "do" plus the subject

"I", "you", "we", and "they" plus the verb. If the subject is "he", "she", or "it", you

need to say "does". So, let's look at some example questions. As I said before, "Do I

want a beer?" Beer, beer, beer. Okay. "Do you like traveling?" "Do we have fun?" You

better say yes. If you don't, I'll come over there and kick your ass. "Do they smell good?"

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Now, when we use "he", "she", and "it", we have to replace

"do" with "does". So, we have to say, "Does he want a beer?" "Oh, that guy over there,

does he want a beer?" "Hey, buddy, you want a beer?" That's how we say it really fast

in English. "Do you want a beer?" But, duh, that's terrible grammar. "Does she like traveling?"

So, if it was "you", "I", or "we", we'd say "do you", but because it's a singular human,

we'd say "does she like traveling?" And if there's only one dog, we would say "Does it

smell good?" Or if there's one thing, if it's singular. So, "they" can mean one or more

people or one or more things. "It" is going to be a singular thing or person that we don't

know if it's a man or a female. That's cool. But, "Does it smell good?" That's the important

thing we want to know.

So, asking these questions are very important in starting even small conversations with

the people that you meet. Because you're practicing and learning English, you really don't know

what to say to people when you meet them, right? You say, "Hi, nice to meet you. What's

your name? Ronnie, okay, yeah, good. God, what can I say? Oh, no, I got one. Do you

like..." So, if you ask people about their opinions, it's going to start a conversation.

Or if you ask people about everyday actions or activities, it's going to help you. "Oh,

hey, oh, I like swimming. Do you like swimming? Yes, you do? Cool." And then you can find

something in common with people. Or maybe the person doesn't like what you like, and

that's fine too, but with the positive comes the negative. And I must teach you the negative

form because sometimes, "I just do not want a beer." So, very formal grammar, we would

have to write "do not". "I do not want a beer." But we don't say that, we usually

always use the contraction. Contraction means it goes from two words to one with an apostrophe.

This guy has an apostrophe. We would say, "I don't want a beer." And in really fast

English, we'd say, "I don't wanna beer." Wanna, wanna. Do you wanna beer? I don't wanna beer.

But don't worry about that right now because that's a little bit up there. "I don't want

a beer." Hey, do you like traveling? And if you answered, "No, Ronnie, no." I would say,

"Wow, you don't like traveling?" This is the answer to a question, but I'm surprised. Do

we have fun? Do you know what? No, we don't have fun. And do they smell good? Mmm, guess

what? Yep, yep. They don't smell good. So, maybe they should take a shower. Yeah, a shower.

That'd be a good thing, wouldn't it? Mm-hmm.

So, the negative of "do" is "don't". When we use "I", "you", "we", and "they", the negative

is always going to be "don't". And very formally, "do not". But we usually never say that, especially

when we're talking normally to our friends, or casually, or even at a job interview in

a formal situation, we wouldn't say "do not", usually, unless you're super formal, and that's

weird. But do what you want to do, that's fine.

Now, remember when I told you that "he", "she", and "it", "he shit", we have to be careful

with? Well, the negative is no exception, okay? If I say, "Does he want a beer?" and

the answer's no, we would say, "He doesn't want a beer." Maybe he's had too many beers,

and he says, "No, he doesn't want a beer." And "doesn't" is just the short or the natural

form of "does not". Very formally, "He does not want a beer, Ronnie. Stop offering him."

I'll drink it, that's fine. It's okay. "She doesn't". Question, "Does she like traveling?"

No. "She doesn't like traveling." So, again, you have to be very careful. "He", "she",

and "it", so many times I hear people say, "Oh, she don't like traveling." It hurts my

brain. Even native English speakers say, "Oh, she don't like traveling." Ronnie gets a little

bit itchy when people use bad grammar like that. But that's fine. Just don't make me

itchy, okay? Just use it properly. And sometimes you're going to make a mistake. You're going

to say, "She don't", and Ronnie will go, "No, don't say that. She doesn't." Okay? And "it",

like I said, it is a singular thing. It could be a dog, a cat, but there's only one of them.

And we can say, "It doesn't smell good." Does it smell good? It doesn't smell good. So,

the negative form of "does" when we use "he", "she", or "it" is going to be "doesn't". Remember,

very formally, "does not", but we don't say that. So, here's your challenge. I want you

to talk to people in English. You can talk to me. Yeah. I have online private English

classes at englishwithronnie.com. You can talk to me. You can practice with me and ask

me these questions, or you can ask the people around you, and you can practice using "does",

"doesn't", "do", and "don't". Till next time. I'll see you later. Bye-bye.