Helping verbs in different tenses

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by divineacclivity » Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:40 pm
Ron,

I read the explanations again and again & reached the following conclusion. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What I gather from all of the explanations above, the following ones are correct:
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
--> Helping verb changes tense but this is right.
I have never seen what my father did.
--> Now, this sentence would be wrong because it says: I never got to see what my father executed.
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may do.
--> wrong, because no two helping verbs are used together in this respect
I have never seen more aardvarks than I did last year.
--> this is also fine for the same reason that helping verbs can change tenses as long as there's no change in the meaning e.g. I have never seen what my father did
thanks in advance.
lunarpower wrote:
magic monkey wrote:I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father saw one.
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may see one.
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may do.
I have never seen more aardvarks than I saw last year.
I have never seen more aardvarks than I did last year.
all of these are fine except the fourth one. that one is incorrect because it contains two consecutive helping verbs ("may" and "do"); you can't use more than one helping verb.

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by magic monkey » Tue Jun 03, 2014 4:52 am
divineacclivity wrote:Ron,

I read the explanations again and again & reached the following conclusion. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What I gather from all of the explanations above, the following ones are correct:
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
--> Helping verb changes tense but this is right.
I have never seen what my father did.
--> Now, this sentence would be wrong because it says: I never got to see what my father executed.
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may do.
--> wrong, because no two helping verbs are used together in this respect
I have never seen more aardvarks than I did last year.
--> this is also fine for the same reason that helping verbs can change tenses as long as there's no change in the meaning e.g. I have never seen what my father did
thanks in advance.
lunarpower wrote:
magic monkey wrote:I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father saw one.
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may see one.
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may do.
I have never seen more aardvarks than I saw last year.
I have never seen more aardvarks than I did last year.
all of these are fine except the fourth one. that one is incorrect because it contains two consecutive helping verbs ("may" and "do"); you can't use more than one helping verb.
Hi divine,

As far as I know, all of your conclusions are correct except this,
I have never seen what my father did.
--> Now, this sentence would be wrong because it says: I never got to see what my father executed.
Just technically speaking, it is a reasonable sentence that makes sense, literally meaning WHAT MY FATHER DID.

Well it is ok, but it will not mean "father saw ..."

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by lunarpower » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:30 am
divineacclivity wrote: I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
--> Helping verb changes tense but this is right.
"Helping verb changes tense" is incorrect. If that were the situation, the right-hand part would be "had" (and then you'd need additional context to justify the use of that tense, too).

"Do"/"did"/etc. can stand for an action verb that originally appears in ANY tense.

Your sentence is doing the same thing as this one:
I never saw as many things as my father did.

"Saw" and "have seen" are both tenses of "see". The fact that one of them has a helping verb, while the other doesn't, is irrelevant; they are two tenses of the same verb.

I have never seen what my father did.
--> Now, this sentence would be wrong because it says: I never got to see what my father executed.
If there is zero context (as is the case here), then, yes, it's ambiguous.

If the sentence is presented in a larger context that's sufficient to exclude one of the two interpretations, then the sentence is fine.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by lunarpower » Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:31 am
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may do.
--> wrong, because no two helping verbs are used together in this respect
Yes.
I have never seen more aardvarks than I did last year.
--> this is also fine for the same reason that helping verbs can change tenses as long as there's no change in the meaning e.g. I have never seen what my father did
thanks in advance.
Correct conclusion, but incorrect analysis. "Did" is just referring to a tense of "see" again (as in the first example above).
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by arias » Thu May 07, 2015 8:01 am
lunarpower wrote:
I have never seen an aardvark, but next year I may do.
--> wrong, because no two helping verbs are used together in this respect
Yes.
I have never seen more aardvarks than I did last year.
--> this is also fine for the same reason that helping verbs can change tenses as long as there's no change in the meaning e.g. I have never seen what my father did
thanks in advance.
Correct conclusion, but incorrect analysis. "Did" is just referring to a tense of "see" again (as in the first example above).
It seems the 6th Mgmat guide still believe the tense between the verb and helping verb should match.
Quite strange...