Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use do in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun, numeral

Do means a syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be. Example: “Do you go there often?”

Examples of do by meaning

verbA syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.

  • Do you go there often?

verbA syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods.

  • I do not go there often.
  • Do not listen to him.

verbA syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.

  • But I do go sometimes.
  • Do tell us.
  • Boy, did I make a mistake!

verbA syntactic marker that refers back to an earlier verb and allows the speaker to avoid repeating the verb; in most...

  • I play tennis; she does too.
  • Likes her cappuccino, Mary does. (UK, colloquial)
  • Your remarks piqued my curiosity, as it did my mom's too.

verbShould; ought to (especially in respect of a task to be repeated).

  • Do I just call every number on the list each time?

verbTo perform; to execute.

  • If you want something done, do it yourself.
  • All you ever do is surf the Internet. What will you do this afternoon?
  • I love doing puzzles, especially crosswords, but lately I've taken to sudokus too.

verbTo suffice.

  • make it do or do without
  • it’s not the best broom, but it will have to do; this will do me, thanks.
  • He'll do to sleep with you!" And she dragged the Rabbit out by one ear, and put him into the Boy's arms.1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

verbTo be reasonable or acceptable.

  • It simply will not do to have dozens of children running around such a quiet event.
  • Not quite what you had in mind, but it'll do.2009, Tim Thornton, The Alternative Hero, Random House, →ISBN, page 4

More sentences with do

  • I wonder how they do this on the other side of the pond.From the entry pond
  • We still have a couple hours left to do in the yard.From the entry hour
  • Kindness is a verb, not an adjective. You're only kind if you do kind things.From the entry verb
  • How much head do you have at the Glens Falls feeder dam?From the entry head
  • Right now I need to head into town to do some shopping.From the entry head
  • The new teacher was strict and the students did not want to abide by his rules.From the entry abide
  • It's not fair to do that – it's just not on.From the entry on
  • All they could ever do was to shout abusive inanities at me.From the entry abusive
  • Nobody told me to do it. I did it of my own accord.From the entry accord
  • Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.From the entry four
  • Did you hear what she said about my outfit? She kind of clocked me.From the entry clock
  • Very few did she have not to go there, did she?From the entry few
  • It was very singular; I don't know why he did it.From the entry singular
  • I always used to do my shopping now, to avoid the rush.From the entry now
  • She did it all on her own like a big girl.From the entry big
  • What's so big about that? I do it all the time.From the entry big
  • I did a take when I saw the new car in the driveway.From the entry take
  • You told me I could do that, but she said that I could not.From the entry but
  • The local government did not have much say in the matter.From the entry say
  • When you say last Monday, do you mean the Monday just gone, or the one before that?From the entry last
  • We just wanted to take off a few thou, which we easily did with fine sandpaper.From the entry thou
  • Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.From the entry know

Meaning of do

  1. verb A syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.
  2. verb A syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods.
  3. verb A syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.

Full definition of do

Questions about do in a sentence

How do you use do in a sentence?
Do is used as a verb, noun and numeral. For example: “Do you go there often?”
What is a short sentence with do?
“Do tell us.”
What does do mean?
Do means a syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: do (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use do in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/do. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.