_bees_

[Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.]

At 05:15 AM 4/17/97 -1000, Geoffrey S. Nathan wrote:
>At 03:24 AM 4/15/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>     Re _bees, beed_: the following judgment holds for me:
>>
>>     You be good for Grandma, now, and if you do / ??*are I'll buy you an
>>     ice-cream cone.
>>
>>     "Are" sounds pedantic if not just plain wrong.
>>     Anybody concur?
>I concur with Dave's judgment.


C'mon now, this is a very ordinary structure. This is just an imperative
correctly using the simple form of a main verb. Since the verb is a main
verb, not a helping verb, 'do' is the correct choice here. That is, the
correct helping verb for main verb 'be' (i.e. not the helping verb) is
'do' as it is for any main verb, e.g. ...

you eat everything for grandma and if you do, I'll...
you work hard for grandma and if you do, I'll...

This, of course, would be true for any of the main verb synonyms of the
helping verbs.

you have a good time, and if you do
you do a good job, and if you do

I mean this is pretty basic grammar.  There's nothing mysterious about the
choice of 'do.'

Phil Bralich

Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Ergo Linguistic Technologies
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