I just have looked of the following information. Does the following sentence wrong? "If you not got a job, what would you do? "If you did not Have a job, What would you do? <=Is this very old fasion sentence?
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1The older form of "did not have" is "had not", not "not got".– Dan GetzCommented Oct 20, 2014 at 1:33
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6Only people over the age of 250.– user230Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 1:40
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1You didn't mean "If you've not got …", did you?– Dan GetzCommented Oct 20, 2014 at 1:48
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1If you didn't have a job, what would you do? and If you had no job, what would you do? are equally correct, although the former is much more common than the latter (the auxiliary do). I suspect the choice between the two is regional not age-based, but I don't have any evidence for that, so I can't really answer.– JoeCommented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:04
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2@user1917217 ell.stackexchange.com/questions/26657/…– user230Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:11
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1 Answer
No, you cannot omit the auxiliary do in a sentence like If you did not have a job, what would you do? The proposed sentence If you not got a job, what would you do? is incorrect.
You can, however, contract the words did and not into the contraction didn't, to form the sentence If you didn't have a job, what would you do?
Contractions like didn't are very common in spoken English and informal writing. In formal writing, they are more likely to be avoided (opinions vary on whether or not they are appropriate).
Using did not instead of didn't in casual speech would make it sound a little more formal and perhaps slightly old-fashioned, but not excessively so, in my opinion. I think the passage you quote is an exaggeration.
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2Or if you want to emphasize the not: "I did not take the last piece of cake."– user3169Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 1:59
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2If you had no job, what would you do? is correct, and is roughly what the user is asking about (I assume the reference to didn't have a car is a reference to a question from a few days ago)– JoeCommented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:00
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1@Joe: True, but that construction works only in certain situations. In the sentence If you didn't have three children, what would you do?, I don't see an easy way to rephrase without the auxiliary. Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:03
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1If you had fewer than three children... or If you had no children, depending on what you're trying to explain. In that case it's more likely to use that construct really - If you didn't have three children leaves it somewhat unclear whether you mean if you had some number other than three, or specifically none.– JoeCommented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:05
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1I suppose the difference is the auxiliary do lets you negate the whole participle, ie, If you didn't have a job -> If !(have a job), while If you had no job is If have !(job), which is (subtly) different.– JoeCommented Oct 20, 2014 at 2:07