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I am trying to learn/improve my English by remembering grammar rules. Everyday, I read a lot of technical documentation and have many conversations with my colleagues from US.

I already have many phrase templates, but sometimes I urge myself to stop using this and try to figure out rules by which a phrase was constructed.

So, how common is the usage of the sentence "I'm not understand". (Understand — is verb in 1st form used after form of be.)

What rules were used? Why doesn't it sound like "I don't understand" or "I'm not understanding"?

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Where did you see "I'm not understand?" – gbutters Apr 18 '11 at 21:02

2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

The phrase "I'm not understand" is constructed... well... badly. It's simply incorrect.

Your two alternatives are correct. You can use do understand or is understanding, but you can't use do understanding or is understand. You use do with the verb in base form, and is with the verb in present participle form.

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I just was confused by tons of google's result. Thanks. – bayda Apr 18 '11 at 21:09
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For extra clarity: "I'm not understanding" would also be incorrect as a complete sentence to indicate that you don't understand something; normally you would always say "I don't understand". – Cerberus Apr 18 '11 at 22:16
up vote 3 down vote

"I'm not understand." is not proper usage. A native speaker would never say it.

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I just was confused by tons of google's result. Thanks. – bayda Apr 18 '11 at 21:10
2  
Internet culture includes a tendency to deliberately mangle English grammar, as a form of wordplay. (The paragon exemplar of this is of course lolcat speech, e.g. "*I can has cheezburger?") – Zack Nov 12 '12 at 2:40

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