Hi, everyone. I read a dialogue like this:
A: I hope he hasn't failed his exam.
B: I do.
What does 'I do.' mean here?
THANKS.
What does 'I do.' mean here?
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diamondypy
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AskSarah
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Re: What does 'I do.' mean here?
"I do" means, "I do...hope he fails his exam."
Another example is,
A: I want ice cream.
B: I don't.
Another example is,
A: I want ice cream.
B: I don't.
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mandrews
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Re: What does 'I do.' mean here?
In addition to the other poster's answer: 'do' is used as an 'auxiliary verb' in your example.
In English, for stylistic reasons, we don't like like repetition. So, instead of using the same verb twice in a row, we use 'do' instead:
A: I hope he hasn't failed his exam.
B: 'I hope he fails his exam'- using 'fail' again here makes it sound 'clumsy'.
Instead, we will just say: 'I do', meaning 'B' wants the person being talked about to actually fail the exam.
In English, for stylistic reasons, we don't like like repetition. So, instead of using the same verb twice in a row, we use 'do' instead:
A: I hope he hasn't failed his exam.
B: 'I hope he fails his exam'- using 'fail' again here makes it sound 'clumsy'.
Instead, we will just say: 'I do', meaning 'B' wants the person being talked about to actually fail the exam.
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