I watch a lot of American shows and I noticed that the actors tend to drop &quot;does&quot; or &quot;did&quot; from the dialogue when a sentence begins with it. For example: Does she have a name? becomes She have a name? Did you do it? becomes You do it? Not sure if this is a common occurrence in other cultures as well. I wanted to know if this is a general rule in english to verbally drop the &quot;does&quot; or &quot;did&quot; when a sentence begins with it.
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When I learned English, my teachers told me that all questions must have an auxiliary verb at the beginning, just like Are you mad? or Is she playing? do.  But when watching some movies or talking with people who speak English, they just ask using things like You mad? and She’s playing?   Of course, the kind of intonation let me know they are asking a question, but why this happen?
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In asking a question, which is preferred, "Did you know?" or "Do you know?"
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I've learned it is obligatory to invert subject and verb when 'only when' is placed at the beginning of a sentence. However, I've recently found the sentence below.  "Only when the rule can have some meaningful effect it is to be applied."  Some English teacher in my country said this sentence is grammatically correct. He said inversion shouldn't happen in this case because a pronoun 'it' is used as a subject in the main clause and 'it' refers to 'the rule'. I'm not sure whether or not the sentence is correct, but I'm pretty sure that teacher doesn't know what he is talking about.  I think that sentence should be "Only when the rule can have some meaningful effect is it to be applied."  What do you think? Is it incorrect? If so, why is that?  Many thanks in advance.
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Which one is correct in a sentence?        He don't    He doesn't      I guess "he doesn't" should be correct because he is third person singular but I've seen some people using do with he. Which one is correct?
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I listen to a podcast that I like, but every episodes ends with     Our listeners are what make [podcast name] possible.   which makes me cringe a little each time I hear it. Is it just me, or is the sentence wrong? And if so, what is the correct form - should both verbs be singular? And is there a difference between UK and US usage? (The podcast is based in the USA).  I found a , but it does not apply exactly (and the  only discusses cases where the sentence stars with a time interval).  Thank you.
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I just wrote  in an ELL chat room. But looking at it (or more accurately, listening to my "inner voice" trying to "read it aloud"), I find it bothers me a lot.  A quick check on Google Books finds a claimed 432 written instances of , and 910 instances of , which suggests a significant minority of writers don't have a problem with the fact that the two different read's don't sound the same.  When I check the same construction with other verbs that don't have the same written form for past participle and present tense, it seems people nearly always include both (e.g. :1230, :8; :357, :7).  I'm not usually a big fan of "grammatical rules", but it seems to me there "ought" to be a rule that you shouldn't delete one instance of the verb unless it's "the same" as the one you're keeping. And it also seems to me that since language is primarily spoken, "the same" ought to mean "sounds the same when spoken", not "looks the same when written".  Can anyone who knows more than me about formal rules of grammar settle this one?    As an aside, offhand I can't think of any verb where the past participle and present tense sound the same but are written differently (maybe there aren't any), but would deletion be okay in that case?
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I have found multiple questions touching on this but not a single one that has a comprehensive answer. The information is all there but in little bits.     etc.   Exactly why is "Do not you sleep?" ungrammatical (except in poetry/with artistic license)? I understand that not can't contract after you: "Do you not sleep?" because not can only contract after a verb, and that it always does after do: "Don't you sleep?" but why does it (why must it) contract if it's placed after the verb in a question?   Don't you sleep? (common form) Do not you sleep? (ungrammatical) Do you not sleep? (less common form)
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Similar to , is it correct to use have or has with any* (any/anything/anyone/...) in a question?  Examples:   Have/Has any of my advices help you? Have/Has anyone of you seen it?   Does it depend on the context, or is there a general rule?
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I am very well aware of punctuation usage difference between American and British usage, but this part confuses me a little.  Example:     A. Why did he ask, "Who are you?"   B. Why did he ask, "Who are you?"?   C. Why did he ask, "Who are you"?   The reason I am confused is because a question is enclosed in a question. Now I know when to put a question mark inside and outside quotation mark:     He asked, "Will you go and jump in the pond?" [a question within a statement]      He really said, "Go jump in the pond"? [a statement within a question]   So, which one of the three options is correct? Same goes for use of the period. Should it be placed inside or outside:     D. He said, "Pluck that flower."   E. He said, "Pluck that flower".   F. He said, "Pluck that flower.".   If I pick the D option, would it also mean that my sentence ended with the enclosed sentence? If I pick the E option, would it mean that my sentence ended while the enclosed sentence was incomplete?  B. and F. seems awkward. Please help!
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It is common to say "What happened to him (or somebody)?" to inquire about somebodies' whereabouts. But is it right?   In my opinion, it should be "What was happened to him?" or "What did happen to him?", even it can be "What had happen to him (before today)?" Am I wrong in this understanding?
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In conversation sometimes I’ll say something like this:     What’s that do?   which uses “s” as a contraction for “does”.  Is this a “real” contraction, or is it incorrect usage of a contraction?
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The following extract  from M-W Learner's Dictionary comments on the usage of "don't":           is occasionally used in American English speech and in historical writing as a contraction of does not (as in, "He don't know where he is going."), but this use is now considered improper and should be avoided. Remember that in modern speech and writing, don't cannot be used in the third person singular.       actually confirms the historical usage, but this ungrammatical expression appears to be relatively common still nowadays, and not only in spoken language.  Questions:   Was the usage of "don't" for the third singular person considered grammatical/correct in the past? If so,  When and why did the "does" form become considered to be the only correct expression?   Is its current usage still and AmE thing or is it used as nonstandard expression also in other English dialects?
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Sometime, people put a question mark at the end of a sentence and use it to ask something. Instead using an interrogative sentence:     Do you like it?   You like it?   I think it is more often to someone who is not good at English.  As I am Korean, however, I realized that I also often and frequently violate Korean grammar. And I can't keep that all.  So, my question is:   Is it common for the native to use a declarative sentence as interrogative? Is it hard to understand in a short time? How are your societies tolerant to this?   Is this regarded as impolite or rude?
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Possible Duplicate:          If I'm quoting something someone said and the quote does not have a question mark, but I want to end the sentence with a question mark, would it be     Are you sure she said "Spicy?"   or       Are you sure she said "Spicy"?
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Are they both correct? Should there be singular or plural that right after "any"? If they are both correct, what's the difference?  Here, I quote some sentences from the Internet and I wonder if the word "problem" can be changed into "problems" or vise versa.        I don't think there was any question she wore the pants.    I can ask you any question, and you will answer?   We were never asked any questions.   Any questions about what is happening in mine are put aside until dessert is served.
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What's the difference between      Why would you do that?   and      Why did you do that?   I always saw the sentence 'why would you do that' while watching movies. Why they prefer to use the word 'would'?
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I am studying English and I want to know the main difference between “Have you got?” and “Do you have?” questions. Are they the same? Is one more formal than the other?