Is “Did you it?” a valid question?


My English teacher always asks “Did you it?” when she wants to know whether some student has done an exercise.


I think her question sounds horrible, and I believe it is wrong. In my opinion, she should say “Did you do it?” instead.


I would like to know whether “Did you it?” is in fact wrong.



Answer



A yes–no question that begins “Did you. . . ?” is invariably, or mandatorily, a do-auxiliary inversion. It cannot stand alone as an actual non-auxiliary. You have no verb afterwards, because to it is not English. You cannot say any of these:



  • Spoke you it?

  • Called you her?

  • Ran you the race?

  • Think you so?

  • Called you?

  • Gave you it?

  • Proposed him to her?

  • Have you it?

  • Did you it?


in Contemporary English. That is super-archaic. It might not even be understood.


It is very hard, but not impossible, to make sentences with only pronouns but no verbs come off as grammatical. Here is one such example:



“What about the Smiths? I gave her a letter.”


“And I, him.”



But just having a lone, inverted do-auxiliary without a verb for it to help out on is not going to work.


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