do make sense

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tree123

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Here are some sentences from my notebook. I wrote them down many years ago. They are mainly from my old dictionaries. Some of them do make sense and are good, and some don't and are not. I want to keep the good ones. Please feel free to take a look at them. You might simply put a cross next to the wrong ones but it would be better if it/they can be corrected.

Source: Edit and Writing

Why did emsr2d2 remove 'do'?

I learnt that 'do' can be used to especially emphasize something. I assume the OP meant this in the writing of his/hers in this context.
 

jutfrank

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emsr2d2 was correcting a disastrous sentence. The best way to correct the sentence involved removing the do, which was unnecessary.

The OP may have been aiming for the kind of contrastive emphasis that you're talking about (...some of them do make sense and some of them don't ...) but it was not necessary to do so.
 

tree123

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Being Chinese, it is very easy for me to try to follow the mind track of that OP's as we share the same Chinese language structure.

Of course, there's another possibility as you've said the OP just constrasted, so it is not necessary to add 'do' in his/her writing.

Since I am not a mind reader, so I prefer talking about the usage of 'do' with sentneces I made here as below from now on.


You: Do you like this film?

I: I do like the film, but I don't like that one.

With 'do like', I am not only saying 'I like this film', I am trying to say 'I like the film very much' with 'do' to emphasize 'like'. Is it correct to use 'do' in this context?
 

jutfrank

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Since I am not a mind reader, so I prefer talking about the usage of 'do' with sentneces I made here as below from now on.

Very sensible. Good.


You: Do you like this film?

I: I do like the film, but I don't like that one.

With 'do like', I am not only saying 'I like this film', I am trying to say 'I like the film very much' with 'do' to emphasize 'like'. Is it correct to use 'do' in this context?

I see what you're trying to do. Yes, that's okay.

The dialogue as you have it doesn't make a lot of sense, though. It could work like this:

A: Do you like this film?
B: I do like it, yes.
 

tree123

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The dialogue as you have it doesn't make a lot of sense, though. It could work like this:

A: Do you like this film?
B: I do like it, yes.

You said 'it doesn't make a lot of sense'. I don't get it. Is it because when someone asked me a question, and I should have answered the question directly with 'yes' or 'no', instead of directing to another issue as a contrast after answering that?
 

jutfrank

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You said 'it doesn't make a lot of sense'. I don't get it. Is it because when someone asked me a question, and I should have answered the question directly with 'yes' or 'no', instead of directing to another issue as a contrast after answering that?

The bit that doesn't make much sense is but I don't like that one.

What one? Are you imagining that the speaker is watching two films at the same time?
 
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