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Guest Posted 23 years ago
Grammar

What did surprise you?

What did surprise(d) you most about .....
What surprised you most about .....
Q1 Is the first sentence correct?
Q2 Why is DID not needed in the second sentence?
Thank you
  

Top answer

The first sentence is grammatically correct, but few people would speak in that way. "Did" is only needed for emphasis if (for instance) there were two things under discussion. g.

— John C.

  • The first sentence is grammatically correct, but few people would speak in that way.
  • "Did" is only needed for emphasis if (for instance) there were two things under discussion.
  • g.
  • " "Surprised" is like a shortened version of "surprise did", so "did" is not necessary.
  • Cheers John.
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2 Answers
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The first sentence is grammatically correct, but few people would speak in that way. "Did" is only needed for emphasis if (for instance) there were two things under discussion.

e.g.

Person A: "Only one thing surprised me about him, and it wasn't his outfit"
Person B: "Okay, then - are you going to tell us what did surprise you?"

"Surprised" is like a shorte
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'did' is not needed in the second question because 'what' is the subject of the quesiton. When a 'question word' - what / who etc. is the subject of a question, then no auxiliary verb is used in the present or past. Look at these examples:
John went to the cinema. (John = subject)
Where did John go? (John = subject - use the form 'auxiliary + subject + verb)
Somebody went to the ci
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