How are you? No episódio de hoje do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre coisas assim: I do watch this show. I did study. She does like you. They do have a dog. Só que concentro os exemplos na primeira pessoa do singular (“I”) para simplificar. Está vendo ali – o do, o did, o does? Essa é uma maneira pra lá de comum de usar os auxiliares, e é uma daquelas coisas que a gente só pega (e começa a falar) com muito listening. Então vamos ao listening!

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Hello. How’s it going? What have you been up to? Are you social-distancing or are you self-isolating? Here where I am we are all social-distancing, we’re talking online, we’re meeting online to chat… You know the drill.

Today I’m not going to talk about coronavirus, thank God. I’ve got something really, really cool, really interesting that people do with the English language, that the native speakers do… And I think I’ve touched on it on the website. I think we have an article about it but I don’t think I’ve ever addressed this on a podcast episode.

Here we go. Listen to this little example: let’s say your cousin Marilyn gave you a skirt. Let’s say you’re a girl… Your cousin Marilyn gave you a skirt on your birthday, and the skirt is orange in the front – and green in the back. It’s an unusual skirt. The funny thing is, you have a shirt that is also orange in the front and green in the back. They were made for each other – the shirt and the skirt. Obviously, you think that the shirt will be perfect with that skirt. They will match completely, but you’re saving this ensemble for a costume party because you know the colors are so strong… You don’t really want to wear the skirt and the shirt every day. Orange in the front, green in the back… It looks more like a, like some sort of costume, maybe for carnival.

Let’s say your friend Marilyn gave you that skirt in March and now it’s June, and she realizes she has never seen you wearing that skirt. She asks Hey, I’ve never seen you wear the skirt that I gave you. What is it? Do you not like it? And you say: No, Marilyn. I do like it! I do like it, but it’s so unusual. It’s such an unusual color combination… I’m really waiting for the right occasion to wear it. It goes with my shirt. But I do like it! And you’re being honest, you do like it but it’s not a skirt to be worn every day.

Here’s another little story. You had a Math test last week and you got a four out of ten. Your teacher graded your test and you got a 4. Your friend Marcy says Hey, you didn’t study for the test, did you? I thought you were going to study so hard for this. I thought you needed a good grade. Where were you? Why didn’t you study? And you tell Marcy Wait… actually, I did study but I had a cold the week before the test and that really got in the way of my studying. I was feeling really sick and I was in bed most of the time. I tried to study but it didn’t go very well. Yeah, I did study.

Did you notice that in these two little stories I said ‘I do like it’, ‘I do like the skirt’ and ‘I did study’? ‘I did study’. I said, ‘I do like it’ instead of ‘I like it’ and I said ‘I did study’ instead of ‘I studied’. When you do that, you’re emphasizing the action. You say that when you want to really emphasize to the other person that you are doing that action or that you did that action or that you really like something. They’re thinking that maybe you don’t like it, maybe you didn’t do something, maybe you didn’t do that action… But then you say No… I do like it. I did study.

“No… I did see you at the movie theater, but you know… I was with my friend who doesn’t really like you, I didn’t want to upset her – that’s why I didn’t wave! But yes, I did see you at the movie theater.” “Yes, I did like the food, but I had a stomach ache and… that’s why I didn’t eat much.”

In all of these situations, you want to emphasize the verb. You want to emphasize that it is true that you like something, that you saw someone, that you studied, that you liked the food… And we use that little auxiliary particle to do that. I just wanted to give you these two examples today and sort of ask you to start paying attention to that. That’s something that you will acquire the more you listen to English. Start paying attention to that when you’re watching your favorite TV shows or when you’re watching movies and you’ll start noticing how often people do this — because this is really a very common way to express things.

See you next time or talk to you next time! Bye.

Read more about auxiliaries mentioned in this episode by clicking on the links below

Do, does, did… os auxiliares além das short answers

Pratique o inglês: auxiliares

Key expressions

• I do like it / I did study
  

Vocabulary

you know the drill = você sabe o que é; você sabe o que fazer, você conhece/sabe o caminho das pedras

ensemble = conjunto

graded your test = corrigiu/deu a nota para a sua prova

costume party = festa à fantasia

wave = acenar