Don’t, Doesn’t
by Owen Fourie
What is the problem with these statements?
- She don’t understand me.
- He don’t like getting wet.
- It don’t work anymore.
Such expressions are heard, and they jar on the hearing of most speakers of the English language.
Sadly, this usage can be seen in writing too:
“I’ve been careful while designing this gadget to make sure that it don’t restrict the user …”
Correctly, the adverb not is being used to make a negative statement, and it is being combined with the auxiliary verb in a contracted form: do not becomes don’t.
The problem is not a disagreement in number between subject and verb.
Singular and plural subjects can take do or don’t, but there is one exception, and that is the problem here: In the third person singular, the correct form is does or doesn’t, not do or don’t.
Let’s remove the negation for a moment:
- She do understand me.
- He do like getting wet.
- It do work …
This makes the error more obvious. It should be
- She does understand me.
- He does like getting wet.
- It does work …
These are instances of the present emphatic tense.
Restoring the negation, we would then have
- She doesn’t understand me.
- He doesn’t like getting wet.
- It doesn’t work anymore.
Here is a simple tabulation of the correct negative forms of the infinitive to do. Only in the present and past tenses will you see the negative forms of do as contractions.
| Person/ Number | Present Emphatic Tense | Past Emphatic Tense |
| 1st/Singular | I don’t | I didn’t |
| 2nd/Singular | You don’t | You didn’t |
| 3rd/Singular | She doesn’t
He doesn’t It doesn’t |
She didn’t
He didn’t It didn’t |
| 1st/Plural | We don’t | We didn’t |
| 2nd/Plural | You don’t | You didn’t |
| 3rd/Plural | They don’t | They didn’t |
It is important to note the consistency of these forms and the one exception—third person singular in the present emphatic tense. That is where you must not use don’t.
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If there are other usages in speech that have confused you, mention them here to get clarity. Your comments, observations, and questions are welcome.
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