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Today I came read someone write "I might do too" and it struck me as non-idiomatic – but I was unable to identify the offending aspect.

Near variations all sound acceptable to my ear:

  • "I do too"
  • "I might do so/it/that too"
  • "I might go too"

An intransitive do is obviously acceptable, as is might with another verb, and I have no issue with a transitive do after "might".

Is there anything non-idiomatic about "I might do too" or am I hearing things and should just delete this question?

Presuming there is something about "I might do too", what is it?

My conjecture is that the "do" in "I might do too" is filling in for a previously used verb (e.g. speaker A runs and speaker B does too), but "might" already fills in for that verb. Both "might" and "do" are both capable of repeating/referencing the preceding verb, so "do" becomes unnecessary.

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  • Yes, do is strictly unnecessary here, but is nevertheless commonly used. A: "Are you coming out for a walk later?" B: "I might do." C: "I might do too."
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Aug 23, 2022 at 7:48
  • Sounds British to me.
    – Casey
    Commented Sep 9, 2023 at 3:47

2 Answers 2

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As Huddleston & Pullum (2002) explain, such sentences are generally considered valid in British English but not in American English (p. 100-101); if you're in the US, that would explain the issue.

According to them, in British English do in such sentences is used as a pro-form referring back to an entire preceding verb phrase. So, in "She went to Paris, and I might do too," do stands in for the verb phrase "went to Paris."

In American English, by contrast, do in such cases is treated like the do found in do-support, as in "Do you want breakfast?" or "I do not want breakfast." This do has no secondary forms (in their terminology), meaning (among other things) that it can't go after a modal auxiliary; this is why "I might do too" is invalid, whereas "I do too" is fine. "I might go too" is also fine, since "go" does have secondary forms.

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  • We have this usage in American English too. AmE just habitually expresses the object of pro-predicate form "do" using a pronoun (often "that"), while BrE typically omits it completely. I feel like this phrasing is far more common in BrE also, even including AmE pronoun-inclusive uses in the comparison.
    – R Mac
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 23:04
  • @RMac Note that such cases involve a separate, non-auxiliary use of do: "Did he do so?" Is correct but "Did he so?" isn't.
    – alphabet
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 23:10
  • Sorry I don't understand. Nothing I said suggests that "do" itself can be omitted.
    – R Mac
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 23:11
  • @RMac My point is that this usage of do with it/so/that isn't separate from the auxiliary use described in my answer.
    – alphabet
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 23:15
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"I might do," is a very popular expression in British English. It's exactly the same as American English's, "I might do that." It's not idiomatic exactly because the expression is in sufficiently common use that the object of "do" is generally implicitly understood and the phrasing is implicitly understood to be pro-predicate in nature, meaning the predicate is presumed or inferred from context.

I'm afraid there's not much use trying to explain why Americans prefer the object and the British don't, so I won't attempt it.

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