Grammar girl here. Today it's going to be a big to-do over the verb do. That's right, do.

You might not have given much thought to how many jobs do does and how unusual it is.

So today we're going to give do its do.

First, let's consider do's job as an ordinary verb.

In fact, I used do in that way when I said how many jobs do does.

In that sentence, does has its basic meaning of performing some action.

It's a vague meaning with the specifics coming from the larger phrase it's in.

Such as do the dishes, do your homework, do your nails, do lunch or do someone wrong.

You just have to learn idiom by idiom that the action is washing, do the dishes, eating, do lunch, and so on.

Sometimes you need an entire sentence to know what do means.

For example, do happy doesn't make much sense.

But it does if it's uttered by a grumpy boss or teacher who says happy, I don't do happy.

And remember that time our friend Fenster ate a bite of pizza and the cheese stretched out until it finally snapped and ended up on his chin.

Now we call that doing a Fenster.

Do carries even less meaning when it's used as something called a light verb.

When do is a light verb, its direct object isn't just any noun as in examples like do lunch.

Instead it's a verbal noun. For example, you can do a study, do a dance, or do a dive off a diving board.

When do is a light verb, the information about the specific action doesn't come from the rest of the phrase it's in.

It comes just from that verbal noun that tells you exactly what the action is.

In do a dance, it's the verbal noun dance that tells us the action.

Other light verbs include take, as in take a nap and take a walk, make, as in make an announcement, and make a decision,

and have, as in have a cry, have a swim, and have a talk.

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