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I have two questions.

  1. What is the difference between "Why do not you come here?" and "Why do you not come here?"?
  2. Are both of "Why do not you come here?" and "Why do you not come here?" grammatically correct?
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1  
possible duplicate of "Why is this not" versus "why is not this" – Marthaª Mar 24 '11 at 5:30

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

No, the order "Why do not...?" is no longer grammatical in contemporary English.

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Neil: Could you please tell me the reason that "Why do not ...?" is grammatically incorrect? I see many people use this sentence. :) – Anonymous Mar 24 '11 at 5:21
@Coffey -> Wrong information. The question phrase, "Why do not...?", is still used and is grammatically correct. It is most often contracted as: "Why don't you..?". – Mithun Mar 24 '11 at 5:27
4  
@Mithun, the fact that "Why don't you..." is correct has absolutely no bearing on whether "Why do not you..." is correct. In fact, it is not. – Marthaª Mar 24 '11 at 5:39
@Mithun: Yes, but as @Martha says, "don't" is not the same as "do not"; the fact that "don't" is possible does not automatically mean that "do not" is possible. – Neil Coffey Mar 24 '11 at 14:53
up vote 0 down vote

Regarding the "What's the difference?" question, if you correct the first sentence to "why don't you come here?", then the difference is:

"Why don't you come here?" is most often used as a suggestion. It is equivalent to saying "Please come here now."

Fred nervously took a seat on the other side of the room.

"Why don't you come here?" Beatrice purred, patting the loveseat beside her.

"Why do you not come here?" is a question seeking the reason why you refuse to be someplace.

"Let's go in here and get something to eat," said Don.

"No, not here. I never eat at this place anymore," said Bob.

"Oh? Why do you not come here?" asked Don.

The "Why don't you" form can be used equivalently to the "Why do you not" form; the emphasis used when asking will make clear which meaning is intended. (For the suggestion, the emphasis is on "here"; for the question, the stress is on "come" or possibly on "don't".)

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up vote -4 down vote

No. The sentence, "Why do you not come here?", makes no sense at all. It is wrong. But the sentence, "Why do not you come here?", is perfectly valid.

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6  
This is exactly the opposite of correct. "Why don't you come here?" is the most natural way to phrase this; "Why do you not come here?" is more formal (possibly even stilted), but still correct; and "*Why do not you come here" is incorrect. – Marthaª Mar 24 '11 at 5:41
Thanks for correcting me, Martha. :) I can realize the fact by comparing it with other sentence patterns such as: "Why are you not coming?", "Why have you not come.." etc., – Mithun Mar 24 '11 at 5:59

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