Definition: (auxiliary) A syntactic marker.
Alright class, settle down, let’s take a look!
You’ve come across a tricky word today, “does,” and the dictionary gives us a little clue – "a syntactic marker.” Now, that might sound like a mouthful, but let's break it down nice and slow.
Think of it this way: “Syntactic” just means how words
work together
in a sentence. It’s about their order and relationship to each other. And a “marker”? Well, imagine a little signpost!
“Does” is like a little signpost that tells us something important about the verb (the action word) in our sentence. It's often used with pronouns – he, she, it, you – when we’re asking a question or making a statement about whether someone
does
something.
Let me give you an example:
“Does she like ice cream?” See how “does” is pointing to "she" and telling us we're asking if
she
likes something? It’s marking that pronoun as the subject of the question!
It also helps us form statements, like: “He does play basketball.” Here, “does” marks that “he” is doing the action.
Does that make a little more sense? Don't worry if it takes a bit to fully grasp it - understanding how words fit together is a big part of learning grammar!
Now, let’s try some examples... Who can give me another sentence where "does" plays its role as a syntactic marker?