How many question

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helenabertz

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Could you please explain me when to use do/did with question that start with How many e.g.

How many Canadians died in ww2 ?

but How many Canadians do yoga ?

Is this the problem with object and subject question ?
Thank you Helena
 

Chicken Sandwich

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Could you please explain me when to use do/did with question that start with How many e.g.

How many Canadians died in ww2 ?

but How many Canadians do yoga ?

'died' is not the past tense of 'do'.
 

emsr2d2

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"Died" is the past tense of "to die" (to perish).

How many Canadians died in WW2?
How many Canadians were killed in WW2?
 

helenabertz

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'died' is not the past tense of 'do'.

I know it isn't you haven't understood my question I meant do/did as auxilary verb to form questions
should it be How many Canadians did die ? or How many Canadians died ? I need an English native nad grammarin to help me . Thanks anyway.
 

Chicken Sandwich

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I know it isn't you haven't understood my question I meant do/did as auxilary verb to form questions
should it be How many Canadians did die ? or How many Canadians died ? I need an English native nad grammarin to help me . Thanks anyway.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Both are possible, provided they are used in the appropriate context. 'How many Canadians died in WW2?' is more likely though. 'How many Canadians did die in WW2?' requires some context.
 

Rover_KE

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'How many Canadians did die in WW2?' requires some context.

You are right. It requires a context like this:

A: 'I believe that 20,000 Canadians died in WW2'.

B: 'That's nothing like the right number.'

A: 'All right then, how many Canadians did die in WW2?'

B: 'Close to 43,000.'

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I know it isn't you haven't understood my question I meant do/did as auxilary verb to form questions
should it be How many Canadians did die ? or How many Canadians died ? I need an English native nad grammarin to help me . Thanks anyway.

Do/Does + subject of the sentence. (present simple)
How many friends do you have?
How many books does he want?
Did + subject of the sentence (past simple)
How many books did you read last month?
How many people did she invite?
 

helenabertz

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Thank you for your reply. Could you clarify this for me a bit further ?

A simple question like below , no context, which is correct or both are ?

How many books you read ? or How many books did you read ?

The way I understand in the question

How many Canadians died in ww2 ?
Candians are the the subject so there is no need for do/did ( depending on the tense) like in a question Who told you ?
In the question How many books did you read? the subject are books, like in a question "Who did you tell " the subject is you.

As I understand Who did tell you ? is incorrect. So e.g. How many people did do yoga? is incorrect and How many people did yoga? is correct. Am I right ?

Thank you for you time.
 

bhaisahab

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Thank you for your reply. Could you clarify this for me a bit further ?

A simple question like below , no context, which is correct or both are ?

How many books you read ? or How many books did you read ?

"How many books did you read?" is OK with some context; for example: "I read a lot of books while I was on holiday." Oh, how many books did you read?"
"How many books you read?" is not correct, but you could ask "How many books have you read?" which means "How many books have you read in your life, up to this moment in time?"
 
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5jj

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As I understand Who did tell you ? is incorrect. So e.g. How many people did do yoga? is incorrect and How many people did yoga? is correct. Am I right ?
The type of question that I have coloured red is not necessarily incorrect in the right context, as Rover pointed out earlier. The type I have coloured blue is what we would expect to see/hear in most normal contexts.
 
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