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I'm studying English for 10 months. I suppose myself to know it quite well now. But I'm confused about one thing. I noticed that some of my English speaking friends sometimes ask

"Don't you tired/hungry/etc?"

Is this normal/grammatically correct to make such questions? Because I've googled by phrases and found quite a lot of examples of using such questions?

Here are some examples:

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  • You could be referring to the pop culture of Do you even lift, brah? which led to people asking stupid questions like Do you even hungry?
    – Dog Lover
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 10:57
  • Hi Oleg, this is a vaild question, and I'd say it's on topic. However, you can improve it by doing some research first and including your finds in the post. For example, you could say that the grammer doesn't seem to match prescribed usages and include a link to an online source to prove it.
    – Tushar Raj
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 11:07
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    "Don't you tired?" would not be considered proper English in the US. It would be something like "Aren't you tired?"
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 11:14
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    @HotLicks is right. Alternatively, if you want to keep the "don't you" construction, you could add "feel", as in "Don't you feel tired/hungry/etc?".
    – Dan Bron
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 11:25
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    Your examples are 3 examples of improper English. The first may just be sloppy writing. The second is "Don`t you bored of all this? So we gradually coming to the main part" -- clearly a non-native English speaker. The third is too short to get reading.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 11:32

1 Answer 1

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"Don't you tired?" is grammatically incorrect in Standard English, but may be part of the local dialect.

Auxiliary forms such as do, does, did are used with a main verb to frame a question. For example: "Do you speak German?", "Don't you speak German?", where the infinitive speak is present.

But they have no grammatical function in a sentence such as in the one you quoted, because there's no main verb. For example, in the sentence "Don't you tired?", tired is not a verb, but an adjective. Such a sentence is unacceptable in Standard English.

(Note: when we conduct a Google search, it brings up all that it can find in the cyberspace, which is a free-for-all. Since it's natural for us to google for answers, it's recommended that you do it by typing, as in this case, say, "How to form questions in English". You might end up on an authentic site that you could learn from.)

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  • Hi Sankarne, your answer sounds a bit condescending. This is a site about usage. The OP has heard English-speakers talking this way, stands to reason that some regions might consider this accpetable informally, if not grammatical. The OP is NOT asking for a way to paraphrase these statements to be grammatical. The points you made are better suited to a comment than an answer.
    – Tushar Raj
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 12:09
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    You're welcome! Although it's interesting to learn about these anomalies, it would be good not to use such a "language", especially as a learner. A native speaker may speak such a language and get away with it.
    – Sankarane
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 14:23
  • An additional perspective with googling is that just because there are lots of examples, it doesn't mean that it is an accepted alternative. There are countless examples of 'the the' on the internet, but they are universally recognized as errors.
    – Mitch
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 14:36

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