Do

How to spell do

2 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce do

What does do mean?

1. verbTo perform, carry out, or complete an action or task.
2. verbA helper verb used to form questions, negatives, and emphasis.
3. nounAn informal British term for a party or organised social gathering.

Do in a sentence

• verb

  Please do the washing up before you leave the kitchen.

• verb

  I do not remember locking the front door this morning.

• noun

  The office threw a big do to mark her retirement.

• verb

  They had nothing left to do once the report was filed.

• verb

  We do enjoy a quiet evening after a long week at work.

• noun

  There was a lovely do at the village hall on Saturday.

Where does do come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is one of the oldest words in the language, descending directly from the Old English verb 'dōn', meaning 'to make, to act, to perform, or to put'. It belongs to a wide West Germanic family, sharing its ancestry with the Dutch 'doen' and the German 'tun', all of which trace back to a prehistoric root carrying the broad sense of 'to set or place'. The same ancient root also fed into the '-do' element you can still hear inside words like 'deed' and 'doom', which originally meant simply 'something done'. Over the centuries 'do' developed its remarkable grammatical career in English as a helper verb that forms questions and negatives, a use that is unusual among the world's languages. The spelling has stayed strikingly short and irregular: just two letters that are pronounced 'doo', which is exactly why it is so easily swapped with its homophones 'dew', 'due', and 'doe'.

How the word is built

• do (single Old English root verb dōn: to perform, make, put)

Words that sound like do

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• dew: Tiny drops of water that condense on cool outdoor surfaces, especially grass, during the night.