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Italy flagPaolo Righetti
little question about past tense Hello, can someone help me please with following phrases : - Why didn't the skeleton go to the party? - Because he had no body to go with My question is : why it says "skeleton go" instead of "skeleton goes" ?

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little question about past tense

Hello,
can someone help me please with following phrases :
- Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?
- Because he had no body to go with.

My question is : why it says "skeleton go" instead of "skeleton goes" ?

Hi Paolo,

To answer your question: "goes" is reserved for one form and tense only - third person singular present. "Goes" should never be used in any other situation. Since this question asks about the past, "goes" would be incorrect.

I hope my answer helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

0

little question about past tense

Hello,
can someone help me please with following phrases :
- Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?
- Because he had no body to go with

My question is : why it says "skeleton go" instead of "skeleton goes" ?


Paolo,

Let's think about the grammar structure of a present simple tense question first.

In the present simple, the question would be 'Why doesn't the skeleton go to the party?'

As you see, the third person 'doesn't' comes after the question word 'Why', not after 'skeleton'.

it's the same with the positive - 'Why does the skeleton go to the party?'

In the past tense we can only use 'did' or 'didn't' (no third person form) so we have

"Why didn't the Skeleton go to the party?'


Hope that answers your question.

Warm regards,

Martin


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Good question but old joke! (an oldie but a goldie). It depends on 'do', 'did', 'do not', 'did not'. They all take the verb infinitive. Eg. DO not TELL me that one again.., DID not I HEAR that one 1000 times before? You DIDN'T READ it from me.. The skeleton DID GO to the party etc etc

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