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If the first clause is "John has a Birmingham accent[,]"in order to mention that "harry has a Birmingham accent too" which one is a wiser choice to be mentioned as the second clause?

  1. just as Harry has.
  2. just as Harry does.

In my own opinion the second one is better because in the first sentence "has" is a main verb not an auxiliary one.

I would be glad to know your idea (please consider the difference between u.s and u.k accents in your answers)

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  • You don't get a grammatically correct sentence if you put those two parts together (possibly just due to a lack of punctuation and capitalisation). Can you please edit your question to include a choice between two gramatically correct sentences?
    – Max Williams
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 11:54
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    They're both grammatically acceptable. I usually prefer the same verb to do the 'echoing', though do seems fairly pervasive in the US. However, here I'd use 'does' for prosodic reasons.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 11:56
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    "Just as hello has." is not a sentence.
    – Max Williams
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 11:59
  • @Max I've edited, largely to provide a true comparison (between John & Harry rather than 'many words' and ' "hello" '). 'Just as' means 'in the same way that', not in the first instance 'as exemplified by'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:08
  • thank you for editing my question but how did you do that ????
    – sina
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:11

2 Answers 2

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Plenty of native speakers would say:

John has a Birmingham accent (just) like Harry.

John has a Birmingham accent (just) like Harry does.

and both forms could be found in the same idiolect, that is, a person might say either of them.

Relatively few would say

John has a Birmingham accent, as does Harry.

Those who would say "as does Harry" are not likely to say "like Harry" or "like Harry does".

To my American ear, this would be the rarest of all:

John has a Birmingham accent as Harry has.

When I write say I mean versus write. When many native speakers write, they try to remember what they were taught in school, and those (sometimes vague) memories might overrule their own speech tendencies.

Does is an assertion of fact, with the antecedent verb understood to be the predicate, not a synonym for "behaves" in such constructions.

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  • Agree completely with this answer (+1), but I think it might be even better if you state explicitly at the beginning that all these forms are grammatical, and even idiomatic, in some dialect of English, and almost any native speaker would understand (if not personally employ) all of them.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 13:05
  • "All forms are grammatical, and even idiomatic" is simply a paraphrase for "Plenty of native speakers would say". But I take your point that they all might not appear in the same idiolect.
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 13:06
  • Yes, but that clause, as I read it, applies only to the fist two quoted constructions. I was trying to emphasize the all and any with my comment. As in: not one of the 4 (or variations on the 4) could be called wrong.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 13:07
  • remember the title.i have asked for the better choice and that means both of the choices are almost true . its about being more suitable not being right or wrong
    – sina
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 16:03
  • @sina: You have not defined any criteria for "better". Better in what sense? More conversational? More formal?
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 19:06
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in my view second one is better because does is simply a auxiliary verb using do form makes it more emphasis

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    "You should get a magic wand, just as Harry does"? Nope. As both Edwin and Max pointed out in he comments, it depends on context.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:36
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    Hi, qera, welcome to English Language and Usage. We don't encourage answers without reference/research/link that can support your answer. Please take the tour and visit our help center for additional guidance.
    – user24743
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:36

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