"If the loser smile …"

[Odessa Dawn]

Nice Quote of the day May 21, 2011

4) ” If the loser smile after losing the game, the winner will lose the thrill of his victory”….that’s the power of a smile. Keep smiling forever!!!
More: Nice Quote of the day « Positive thoughts of my mind

As it is known, we add an "-s" to the end of a verb to create the 3rd-Person/Singular/Simple Present. But the verb smile has not followed that rule. I don’t know if there is an exception.

Don’t we need an "-s" to be added to the verb smile? It seems an easy question but I started doubting my English. Will you clear it up please? By the way, this thread has been created since as we know that the general rule of thumb for question tag is:

When we have a positive statement then the question tag must be negative. And when we have a negative statement then question tag must be positive.


Then the second sentence violates that rule but it is correct.

She told me nothing, didn't she?
She told me nothing, did she?

P.S: Please don’t blame me for my stupidity because of poor education in my country. I wish I would be ignorant than stupid. Also, as you see I suffer from exceptions in English. I hope you understand me and the only source of correct usage of English is your forum.

[emsr2d2]

Nice Quote of the day May 21, 2011

4) ” If the loser smile after losing the game, the winner will lose the thrill of his victory”….that’s the power of a smile. Keep smiling forever!!!
More: Nice Quote of the day « Positive thoughts of my mind

As it is known, we add an "-s" to the end of a verb to create the 3rd-Person/Singular/Simple Present. But the verb smile has not followed that rule. I don’t know if there is an exception.

Don’t we need an "-s" to be added to the verb smile? It seems an easy question but I started doubting my English. Will you clear it up please? By the way, this thread has been created since as we know that the general rule of thumb for question tag is:

When we have a positive statement then the question tag must be negative. And when we have a negative statement then question tag must be positive.


Then the second sentence violates that rule but it is correct.

She told me nothing, didn't she?
She told me nothing, did she?

P.S: Please don’t blame me for my stupidity because of poor education in my country. I wish I would be ignorant than stupid. Also, as you see I suffer from exceptions in English. I hope you understand me and the only source of correct usage of English is your forum.

The first is a simple typo. It should be "smiles".


The second is not a positive statement. "She told me nothing" is a negative statement because of the word "nothing".

She told me nothing, did she?
She didn't tell me anything, did she?

Both are negative statements with a positive question tag.

[5jj]

The first is a simple typo. It should be "smiles".

I don't think it's a typo. I think the writer intended to use the present subjunctive, in which the third person singular has no -s suffix.

This is grammatically correct, but very rare in modern British English. It is more common in American English.