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English - difference in meaning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| brabakbw Tetraglot Newbie Germany Joined 6049 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: German*, Latin, English, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin, Vietnamese | Message 1 of 6 26 September 2012 at 12:27pm | IP Logged |
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I've been learning English for a very long time, but now I stumbled over something, I
really do not know. Maybe someone who knows it or a Native speaker can explain to me! I read about book about French and one sentence in French present tense can be translated in three different ways into English. e.g. Les enfants chantent means: The children sing/ The children are singing/ The children do sing. Ok. So far...I understand the meaning of children sing and ch. are singing... But where's the difference between The children sing and The children DO sing? This is not clear... Many thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 2 of 6 26 September 2012 at 12:39pm | IP Logged |
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The "do" makes the verb more emphatic.
The children are normally quiet in music class but they DO sing when the headteacher pays us a visit. I suppose you could achieve a similar effect in German by inserting a word such as bestimmt. Edited by beano on 26 September 2012 at 12:40pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| brabakbw Tetraglot Newbie Germany Joined 6049 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: German*, Latin, English, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin, Vietnamese | Message 3 of 6 26 September 2012 at 2:32pm | IP Logged |
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ah, I see. Thank you very much!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6439 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 4 of 6 27 September 2012 at 1:41am | IP Logged |
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No one would really say "the children do sing" unless it was
specifically clarifying something. Like if someone was talking about an activity at church where a children's choir was going to perform, and they incorrectly stated that "children don't sing on Sunday mornings," you could correct them by saying "no, the children do sing on Sunday mornings." It would have to be specifically describing that they sing. It's not a very common construction in English. You would never add "do" just to describe children singing unless you were emphasizing that they do, in fact, sing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| barnacules Newbie United States Joined 4454 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Dutch | Message 5 of 6 01 October 2012 at 6:02pm | IP Logged |
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The use of "do" as an auxiliary verb is usually to form a negative or a question because in English something like "the children not sing" or "sing the children?" is wrong. To form them correctly, you have to use "do" as in "the children do not sing" or "do the children sing?"
(Depending on the inflection of the voice, "the children sing?" can also be a question, but that form is simply asking for confirmation.) As others have stated, when used in a simple declarative sentence like "the children do sing", it serves only to emphasize that they do sing rather than do not sing. It would normally be left out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4513 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 6 of 6 01 October 2012 at 11:50pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, it is emphatic. You can also used it in the past. It's a thing without a clear translation into romance languages as far as I know, since it could be absorbed by an inflexion in the speech or in a myriad of expressions which fit some cases and not others.
I guess German has got similar emphatic words for some situations, as "denn", if I'm right. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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