Advanced ways to use "DO"! - English is Weird!

(guitar plays Take Me Out To The Ballgame)

- So I did a whole video explaining collocations of

and the differences between make and do.

You can watch that video by clicking here.

Or should I have said made a video?

Or could it be both?

You'll know if you watch this.

But today, a really common question that I get is

Aly, I saw this sentence, I do love you.

I do want to go.

Why did they put do?

Isn't that bad English?

Shouldn't it just be I love you, I want to go?

This is a great question,

and this is one of the many weird ways that we use do.

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In a question, do; in a negative, do not.

But in a positive sentence, usually, there's no do here,

so why do we sometimes put do before a verb

in a positive sentence, why, why is that?

It's for emphasis.

We make that sentence stronger, we want to say, yeah,

that verb, yes.

You think no, but actually yes.

It's not negative, it's positive.

I do love you.

That's how do works for emphasis.

Another example, maybe you want to clarify something

before you say something negative.

For example, your friend offers to cook,

but you would prefer to eat out,

in a restaurant for example.

I do like your cooking, but let's go out to eat.

Of course you don't want the other person to think

is my food bad?

So you want to say no, no, no,

don't think that I don't like it, because I like it.

I do like your cooking.

So pronunciation practice, say it with me, emphasis on do.

I do love you.

I do love you, I just, I hate your clothes

and your hair and your face.

But we're not finished, we use do in other weird ways.

You are very, very hungry.

If you don't eat soon, you're gonna kill someone,

so you go to the fridge looking for food to make.

That's a fridge.

So you look inside your fridge.

What food do I have, what can I make?

Pff, all you can find is ketchup, an onion, a potato,

and some butter.

Wow, I mean, it's definitely not perfect,

it's not what you wanted.

It's like nothing, but you can work with it,

and when you work with something,

which it's not perfect, it's not ideal,

it's not really what you wanted, but you make it work.

You make do, or you make do with it, the things.

So as a full sentence...

Pff, onion, potato, ketchup, butter.

I guess I'll make do with what I have.

Hi, welcome to Aly's Cooking Corner.

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When you have nothing in your fridge,

make do with the stuff you do have.

First, mash that potato and melt some butter in there.

Next, chop and cook some onions.

Sprinkle the friggin' onions on top of it,

or stir it in or whatever.

Then put ketchup on top to finish.

You've got yourself a meal, my friend, thanks.

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Say it with me, pronunciation matters, people.

Eh, I'll make do. You say it.

It's not perfect, but I'll make do.

But we're not finished, the next weird way that we use do

is this fixed expression, it'll do.

You can't modify the tense,

but you can change it to a negative,

but it will only be future.

Let me show you an example.

So you are at a party.

Someone is pouring you a drink.

Oh, by the way, this is to pour, not spill,

not spill a drink.

To spill a drink, that's by accident; for example...

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What was I saying?

Oh yeah, so you're at a party,

someone is pouring you a drink,

and they want to know how much do you want?

How much is enough?

So when you want to say that's enough, no more,

you would say, oh that'll do, that'll do.

That will do, that'll do, it has a contraction.

So, for example, alright say when.

Oh, that'll do, thanks, thanks, thanks.

So say it with me, pronunciation people.

That'll do, that'll do.

I've used a glottal T, you don't have to.

That'll do, that'll do.

Another way of using it like enough.

For example, you want to buy your friend a birthday present,

and you want to know, is this present enough?

I need to buy my friend a birthday present, I mean...

Will this do, can I, is this a good birthday present?

That's your hat.

It won't do, will it, it's not enough.

It won't do, this time we're saying it's not enough.

Now, a super posh sounding expression...

For example, you are very posh, you're very fancy,

you're upper class,

your family owns a billion houses and Jaguars,

and you go to a restaurant,

but the waiter tells you, I'm sorry we don't have any...

What do rich people eat, caviar.

Sorry, we don't have any caviar.

And you are super rich, this, this is unacceptable.

So you will say...

No caviar, this simply won't do.

If you want to say a situation is unacceptable,

you would say this simply won't do.

It sounds kind of upper class.

Maybe it's just the context,

but I don't think I've ever said it.

I've never said it, but then I'm very easily pleased so...

But guess what, we're still not finished.

In fact, when something is finished,

or when you have finished with something,

your class, work, a project, you can say it is done.

So when you use be done in any tense,

this means something is finished.

Work is done for the day.

Ah, I'm totally done with my assignment, I can relax now.

It's the same as when you say something is over.

I made a video about that, you can watch it here,

but it works the same way, it means the same thing.

For example...

It's over, we're done.

So if you watched this video, you know that over

can mean something's finished.

So we are done, we are finished.

That, however, is very a very informal way

to break up with someone, that does not sound nice.

So keep that in mind,

please be nice if you break up with someone.

You want to hang out with your friend,

and you want to know what time are you finished with class,

with work, with your assignment, you can ask them,

are we gonna hang out tonight? Yeah.

You can use this in present or future, by the way.

When are you done?

Or, when will you be done?

I'll be done in an hour.

Ugh, I'm so sick of studying,

I can't wait for this exam to be done.

So be done, it means something is finished.

But we're still not done,

there's another weird way that we use do.

You are at a restaurant, and you want to know...

Sorry, do you serve pancakes?

In this context, when you want to know

if a restaurant, shop, or a place offers a service,

offers a product, you can say do the service,

or do the product?

For example, in this context...

Oops, sorry, sorry, sorry, that should have had an S.

Bad teacher points, sorry,

please don't hate me in the comments.

But, yeah, sorry, do you do pancakes?

This is me in every restaurant.

And again, I'm just asking, do you offer this product,

do you offer this service?

So it's not just for restaurants, it could be...

You need to buy a cat toy.

You go to a shop and you want to know,

do you sell cat toys?

Change it for do.

'Scuse me, I know you sell cameras,

but do you also do cat toys? No, okay.

But we're still not done.

Well, actually this is the final one, then we're done.

Okay, you and your friend did an exam,

you just finished, you're done with the exam.

So you come out of the exam room,

and you want to know about the success or failure

of your friend in the test.

So you'll ask this way, how did you do?

You're asking about someone's success

or failure at something, usually a test.

She has a good feeling about that test.

Mm, yeah, I did alright.

Don't confuse this with this.

How do you do, in the present.

So if you meet someone,

and they greet you with this expression, how do you do,

this is different, and it pretty much just means

hello and how are you pushed together.

Quick side note, if someone says this to you,

it doesn't need an answer.

Yes, it's a question, but if someone greets you with this,

you can repeat it back to them, it's fine.

How do you do? How do you do?

(sighs) Okay, now we're done.

Practice these weird ways that we use do in the comments

by letting me know how you did in your last test,

or let me know the breakfast place near your house,

do they do pancakes?

And use the other ways that we use do

using your own examples.

You can find a worksheet on today's video,

practice what you've just learned,

by joining my Patreon page,

or joining this channel as a member.

Let me know in the comments

which videos you'd like to see in the future,

and I'll see you in the next lesson.

(subtle hip hop music)