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Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

I do do shopping on weekends.

The negative of this statement would have been:

I don't do shopping on weekdays.

But a friend of mine said this is incorrect grammatically. Why?

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  • do do shopping is grammatical, but to avoid saying "do do" you can say "I do shop on weekends..." You'd only say "do do shopping" when distinguishing yourself from those who don't do (their) shopping on...
    – TimR
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 19:03
  • I don't understand your second sentence (You'd only say...). Can you explain it a bit more verbosely?
    – Shraddheya Shendre
    Commented Apr 14, 2017 at 19:36
  • I don't think people "do shopping", they "go shopping" or just "shop".
    – user3169
    Commented Apr 15, 2017 at 0:51
  • @user3169 - I thought that gerunds are used as nouns in a sentence.
    – Shraddheya Shendre
    Commented Apr 15, 2017 at 2:50
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    The short answer is that the opposite of "don't do" is just "do." You could say "I do shopping on weekends," and it means the opposite of "I don't do shopping on weekends." The only case where you would say "do do" is to draw emphasis, as in TRomano's example, or, say, if someone accused you of not doing shopping on weekends, and you wanted to retort by saying, "I do do shopping on weekends!" But even in those cases, in formal writing, you would try to avoid "do do" by drawing emphasis in some other way. Perhaps just by italicizing the word "do."
    – RaceYouAnytime
    Commented Apr 15, 2017 at 4:55

2 Answers 2

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The simple present verb is shop.

I shop on weekends.

But we can also use the nominal -ing form to refer to the act as a common task or a regular chore, in which case we use the verb do:

This weekend, I have do some shopping for a new car, and I also have to do some tidying up in preparation for guests who are coming to visit.

This Saturday is going to be a busy day. I have to do the shopping, the washing (i.e. the laundry), then some pet-sitting, and finally some plumbing.

Over the centuries, some of these -ing forms can become bona-fide nouns from common use.

The phrase do do the shopping is an example of the above coupled with emphatic do. Emphatic do reinforces or underscores the assertion. Here is emphatic do in action:

I do believe in spooks! I do believe in spooks. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do.

Paraphrase: I do indeed believe in spooks! I certainly do.

You would need a context to use emphatic do with do the shopping.

To say "I do do the shopping on weekends" emphasizes the truth of the particular assertion. Why would you want or need to emphasize it? Perhaps to counter someone who says something like the following to you:

Why can't you come to the beach with us this Saturday?

To which you reply:

I do the shopping on Saturday.

To which the first person retorts:

Nobody shops on Saturday, fool! I never do the shopping on Saturday.

To which you might reply:

Well, I do do shopping on Saturday.

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    That was very clear, thanks. I did not realise that the first do denoted emphasis. I do get that now.
    – Shraddheya Shendre
    Commented Apr 15, 2017 at 9:35
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This is the contrast that @TRomano is referring to

Some people don't do their shopping on weekends, and some people do do their shopping on weekends.

Instead of

I don't do my shopping on weekends.

vs

I do my shopping on weekends.

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