Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 May 3

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May 3

English verbs

Are there any regular verbs in English that

1. form contraction with -n't
2. can come before subject
3. do not use do-support in questions?

And are there any grammatical words in English which contain letter J?

--40bus (talk) 18:29, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

The closest you'll probably get for your first question is dare – it has at least some uses in which it morphologically behaves like a regular verb (he dares, he dared), and it has at least some uses in which it has the modal-verb-like syntactic properties you named (I daren't, how dare you). However, these uses are not overlapping – in exactly those contexts where it behaves syntactically like a modal, it it also behaves like one morphologically. It's he daren't, not *he daresn't, and how dare he do X, not how dares he do X. So you might say these are actually two different items, in which case the answer to your question is a plain "no". Fut.Perf. ☼ 19:18, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

• As This notes, only limited numbers of words take the "-n't" contraction: forms of the verbs be, have, and do, and the English modal verbs. Given that limited list of verbs, I can't find any that meet your conditions. Also, your second question seems odd, lots of English words, in proper grammar, have a "J" in them. Joke, jerk, jump, etc. Those are all "grammatical" as far as I can tell. --Jayron32 19:40, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

• Grammatical words are "Words for which the primary function is to indicate grammatical relationships, as distinct from lexical words, the primary function of which is referential (content words). Grammatical words include articles, pronouns, and conjunctions. Lexical words include nouns, verbs, and adjectives." (definition from Oxford Reference). DuncanHill (talk) 19:44, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

  What about "just" in the sentence "I was hit by a hailstone just as I was walking into my house". I'm pretty sure "just" is serving as a conjunction between the two clauses "I was hit by a hailstone" and "as I was walking into my house". I think this fits under the "conjunctions of time" or "subordinating conjunctions" listed there. If conjunctions are grammatical words, there's one that uses a J. --Jayron32 19:51, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

  In just as, the word as is a conjunction, synonymous to when. It is modified by the adverb just, in this use synonymous to precisely. Together, just as means the same as precisely when.  --Lambiam 20:02, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

  Ah. Good call. --Jayron32 20:02, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

  Wiktionary considers just as soon as and just in case to be single conjunctions synchronically, even if they started out as adverb + conjunction collocations. I'm more familiar with the term function word than "grammatical word". —Mahāgaja · talk 20:22, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

  We can perhaps agree that just as soon as and just in case are not function words.  --Lambiam 01:38, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

In many forms of American English, "just" the adverb is [dʒɨst], categorically different from the adjective [dʒʌst]... AnonMoos (talk) 21:27, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

What is a grammatical word?? Georgia guy (talk) 19:06, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

Wikipedia article is function word, as indicated by Mahagaja above. AnonMoos (talk) 19:13, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

The verb need also can be used as a regular verb (he needs more time – do we need a ticket? ) and as a modal verb (changing your habits needn't be painful – need I say more? ).  --Lambiam 19:51, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

1. couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't

2. Commands Imperative mood, e.g. Go away. Shut your mouth. Give me the salt shaker. However, when translating to another language, I would add the implied subject before the verb, e.g. You go away. You shut your mouth. You give me the salt shaker. Interjections that start with a verb.

3. What is the time? Which colour is it? How does it work?
Sleigh (talk) 22:38, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

I think the intention of the question was to find regular verbs (not auxiliary verbs) that meet all three clauses.  --Lambiam 01:41, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Are there any verbs which can be in form [stem]sn't or [stem]edn't?

--40bus (talk) 20:12, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Daredn't ^[1][2][3] and neededn't.^[4][5][6] The latter is rare, but feels acceptable to me in reported speech.  --Lambiam 07:10, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

In the 19th century, there were forms such as "dassent" and "durstn't" (from the verb "to dare"), but they're archaic now... AnonMoos (talk) 21:22, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Below par

Hi everyone. Just dawned on me that "below/under par" is used when referring to something lacking, of poor quality etc. In golf, below par is great news for the player who achieves it.

So is it that par in golf is of different etymology or did somebody completely miss the intended meaning decades ago, which then spread? I have follow-up questions, but they depend on answers I will hopefully get.

Thank you. Splićanin (talk) 23:47, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

The usage you're describing fits the usage explained in our article on the financial term Par value. It explicitly mentions the term "under par". HiLo48 (talk) 00:07, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

See definition 5 for the noun under "Etymology 3" in Wiktionary (marked as "UK" there, but this American certainly recognizes the usage). When par means "average", it's not hard to see why "below par" would be a good thing in golf (fewer strokes than a notional average) but a bad thing when referring, for instance, to one's health ("I'm feeling below par", i.e., worse than average). Deor (talk) 00:43, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, partner. Splićanin (talk) 05:27, 5 May 2023 (UTC)