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light87

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Hi all teachers.
Please in this sentence "what gave you away ".
I want to know if gave is used as verb ,also away is used away.
I don't understand the structure of this sentence.
Thank you.
 

5jj

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You are more likely to receive responses if you give your threads helpful titles. You have been asked several times to do this.
 

SlickVic9000

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I consider "to give someone away" to be an idiom. In other words, I wouldn't bother trying to parse it, just understand what it means when you see it. In this case, it means "What caused you to be discovered?" or "What revealed your intentions or thoughts?"
 

moonlike

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Hi all teachers.
Please in this sentence "what gave you away ".
I want to know if gave is used as verb ,also away is used away.
I don't understand the structure of this sentence.
Thank you.

Hi Light87
Consider this example: He said he hadn't told her, but his face gave him away. In this sentence you want to make a question about "his face", which is the subject of the sentence. The question is "what gave him away? It's called a subject question. In this type of question you just write the question word instead of the subject and you write the rest of the sentence. Yes, SlickVic9000 is right. To give somebody away is an expression which means: to do or say something that shows thoughts, feelings or actions that you want to keep secret. Consider the following examples of subject questions:
1. Who was late? (Kate was late)
2. What happened? (Something interesting happened)
3. Where was crowded? (The cinema was crowded)
Good luck
 

bhaisahab

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"To give away" is a separable phrasal verb.
 

light87

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Hi all teachers.
Thank you for your help.
Please when you ask question with this verb give away ,there is not (do).
Thank you.
 

emsr2d2

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Hi all teachers.
Thank you for your help.
Please when you ask question with this verb give away ,there is not (do).
Thank you.

I'm not sure I understand your question, but you can say "Your face does not give you away" or "His face did not give him away", so "to do" is used in the negative statement. In the questions "What gives me away?" and "What gave him away?" there is no need to use any version of the verb "to do".

However, you can say "Does his face give him away?" or "Did my face give me away?"
 
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