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Unit 5 — Avoiding Repetition

auxiliaries in short answers · commenting · reduced infinitives

5.1 Using auxiliaries to avoid repetition

In short answers

When a Yes/No question is asked, we use the auxiliary on its own when answering rather than repeating the whole verb form.

'Will it rain this afternoon?' 'Yes, I think it will.' (rain this afternoon)

📌 Note

There is a difference in the short answers between have and have got: 'Does she have to go?' 'Yes, she does.' / 'Has she got to go?' 'Yes, she has.'

Commenting on given information

When we make comments in conversation, we usually avoid repeating information that has just been given.

'Mary's coming.' 'I know she is.''Angela can speak Russian and Hungarian.' 'She can't, can she?'

📌 Note

Where there is no auxiliary verb in Present and Past Simple positive statements, do/does/did is used to reply — to avoid repeating the full verb: 'I adore Italy.' 'I do too, and so does James.' 'I thought the film was wonderful.' 'I didn't. I hated it.'

Responding with a different auxiliary

To know which auxiliary verb to use, it is necessary to reconstruct the part of the sentence that is missing, and to consider carefully the meaning and the time of the events in the sentence.

Using more than one auxiliary

When there is more than one auxiliary, we can use one or more when responding. We always use more than one if there is a change in auxiliary.

'You should be given a rise.' 'Well, I haven't.''She can't have told him yet.' 'She must have.'

5.2 Reduced infinitives

We can use to instead of the full infinitive in replies.

'Haven't you done the washing-up yet?' 'No, I'm just going to.''Are you coming for a walk?' 'No, I don't want to.'

The verb to be is not usually reduced to to.

She's less moody than she used to be.I wasn't as impressed as I'd expected to be.