Everyday phrases for communication — Post 15
Read post 14 here
Today’s mini-dialogue:
⁃ How did it happen?
⁃ You don’t want to know.
What you need to remember:
- ‘Happen’ is often used in 2 types of questions.
Questions with WHAT or WHO asking about the subject don’t use DID in the past.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱? or 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱? — these two questions are similar in meaning.
You could hear 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱? with contracted HAS. It’s not IS!
When you ask a question with question word other than WHAT or WHO, you use a standard question structure with DID in the past. Present Perfect is not usually used in this context.
⁃ How did it happen?
⁃ Why did it happen?
2. If you don’t want to answer the question you were asked, use an informal set expression 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄.
More formal ways to avoid answering a question:
𝗜’𝗱 (=𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱) 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆.
𝗡𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.
𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘆.
𝗦𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹. or 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
In fast pronunciation of You don’t want to know WANT TO will be often contracted to WANNA: You don’t wanna know. It’s used in informal communication only.
❗️You contract WANT TO, which means with will use a VERB after WANNA. If you use a NOUN after WANT, then WANNA is not used:
⁃ I want some water.
⁃ I wanna eat something.
⁃ You wanna go out tonight?
Today we have learnt how to make different types of questions with HAPPEN and ways of avoiding answering uncomfortable questions in conversations.
If you speak Russian, you can read these lessons in Russian (and practise) in my Telegram channel. Join us!
My name is Daria Storozhilova and this is a series of mini-lessons teaching you how to communicate in English with helpful phrases and spoken expressions.
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