I noticed in songs like the Beatles “Love Me Do,” and “Daisy Bell” (Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do), the word “do,” seems to mean “Will you.”
Is this correct? Or have I been interpreting it wrong. Also where does this come from. I’m assuming it’s an English thing, 'cause of the Beatles usage
I think it is not asking, it is telling. It’s a rephrasing of the imperative.
Do this! -> This, do! -> this do.
Do this! -> Do love me -> Love me, do!
That.
Think of Hyacinth Bouquet: “Richard, do try to stay away from the mud!”
Yes, it’s imperative (command), not interrogative (question).
In normal speech, one would simply say “love me” or “give me your answer.” The word “do” is occasionally added for emphasis (“do make sure it’s done correctly”) or poetic/stylistic effect (“oh, do tell how it happened”).
ETA: If by “English” you mean British as opposed to American, not really. It may be more common in British usage, but it’s not unfamiliar to Americans.
Exactly. It’s an imperative, as in: “Do be careful when you strip the live 120 volt wires.”
Incidentally, this is the only case where BE in English takes do-support.
I had absolutely no problem hearing that line in my head voiced with Patricia Routledge’s Hyacinth.
I fear I have officially watched too many reruns of ‘Keeping Up Apperances’.
More precisely, it’s an example of the emphatic “do,” which, as the name suggests, provides emphasis for the verb following. “Do be careful” is a stronger version of “be careful.”
It sounds very British (English?) to my ears. I don’t know any Americans who use it much, and it sounds British when used at the start of a sentence (“Do write me when you get there” and very British (and old-fashioned, almost stereotypically British) at the end of a sentence (“Write me when you get there, do.”)
Kind of like “Don’t let’s” which is another structure that is foreign-sounding to most Americans – e.g. Alexandra Fuller’s book Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight.
I think that’s obvious. It’s still grammatically an imperative. That is to say, in answer to the OP, it is indeed correct.
[Bobby Hill]
You said “You I like” instead of “I like you.”
[/Bobby Hill]
I do agree that it’s correct-- I’m just pointing out the name for the construction, in case people want to look up more information on the emphatic “do”. While it may be obvious to you, it’s not an obvious concept to everyone, especially people for whom English is not their native language.
Missed edit: In case there’s any confusion, I’m not implying that Markxxx is not a native speaker, just that we have many readers here, and these points of grammar may not be immediately obvious to all. After all, I would also say the fact that it’s an imperative seems obvious to me, but, well, clearly it’s not.
I just looked in the OED to see if it mentions this use of “do,” and it’s definition 30.b. To me it doesn’t sound particularly British, just old-fashioned.
The thing that sounds strange is the “do” being at the end of the sentence.
Do be careful at the mine! ok
Be careful at the mine do! ???
I always took the Beatles lyric as poetic license.
It was probably Paul McCartney echoing the style of old British music hall songs that his dad was fond of.
…also it handily rhymes with i love you.
If it had been left without do, it probably would have been more difficult to find a catchy, convenient rhyme
Love, love me [silence for one beat]
You know I love … um … thee
Those are not question, they are commands.
Way back when, Shakespeare’s time perhaps, English had an inverted order of S-V-O, having once been S-O-V, or so I recall reading in Steven Pinker somewhere.
We still can understand it and use it in some cases ofr special emphasis.
It is not a British thing only, it is poetic license thing.
That is British?
I thought maybe it is Southern, because of the title/lyrics to a song I have been wracking my brains for ages trying to remember, it only coming to me just last night!
“Don’t let’s start” by the dBs of Athens Georgia.
I tis not a matter of simply putting it at the end of any sentence
In this case, you are in the wrong case or voice or something to do this.
But Frank Sinatra sang, without being careful: “Do be do be do”