Be vs Do

Question

"He is not care.""He does not care."Obviously, the second sentence is correct........ but I don't know how to explain that to a friend. Any help or if you know of any links to explain this simple mistake would be welcome.Thanks very much for the help!

Doctor D · Accepted Answer

"To be" refers to a state of being. "To do" refers to an action.

"He does not care" or "he cares" both refer to how he feels at a particular point in time. Caring or not caring are emotional actions. If you want to talk about a state of being, you could say "he is uncaring." This means he is always that way.

I hope this helps.

CalifJim · Answer

TerI don't know how to explain that to a friend.
Any help or if you know of any links to explain this simple mistake would be welcome.

He ___ not care. (is? / does?)

care is a verb is its base form. (It's not in the -ing or -ed form.)

Only a form of do (do, does, did) can be used in that case.

Here are other examples:

He ____ not know. [does]

She ____ not see it. [does]

It ____ not matter. [does]

If you have a word (after not) that is not a verb, or if you have a verb that is not in its base form, you use a form of be (am, is, are, was, were) instead.

It ____ not important. [is]
He ____ not sleeping. [is]
She ____ not eating. [is]

CJ

Be vs Do

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