As in asking for the meaning of something? It would be more correct to phrase it as, "What does that mean?" But especially if English clearly isn't your first language, "What it means?" will probably get the point across well enough
this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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that makes sense, thank you!!
The technical term you're looking for is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-support
English is somewhat weird in how to form questions and negations, most other languages don't do this kind of thing.
Wish I knew more about language mechanics like this. Always fascinates me
My first language is German and this was one of the first lessons we ever got in English: how to form questions and that you need to use the verb "do" to do that.
And then we later had to learn the exceptions like "be" and "can" because "do you be stupid?" and "do you can swim?" are definitely not valid English.
'Do' do be doo-doo. /jk (and not 'proper' grammar for anyone still trying to figure it out.)
Likewise!
Are you familiar with the best kept secret in English, Adjective Ordering?
not as a full sentence, certainly as a subclause: "can you tell me what it means?"
thanks!!
The correct sentence is "what does it mean?"
As far as I know, Russian doesn't use the auxillary verb "do/does".
In many languages, the "do" is often a included in the case itself, meaning that it will be part of the word "mean", as also suggested by the usage of "means" instead of "does mean".
I suppose another construction could be "It means what?"
yeah! in Russia, it’s said as «что это значит?» or directly “what it means?”
"What does it mean?" is a question.
"What it means" is an explanation.
But because we gotta be confusing, it could also be posed as a question:
"Could out just tell me what it means, though?"
It's that thing we do where we smash the statement into the middle of a question, but the question itself is basically the statement.
"Tell me what it means" is still an imperative demand.
"Could you--?" is more of a request. "Please--" would not involve a question mark. And either could take a question instead of a statement, e.g., "Please tell me, what does it mean?"
The error is more evident in the many examples of people mixing up "How do I--?" and "How to."
Yeah that's fair. I've reworded this reply a bunch. I think there's some weird rule that makes requests as questions sound weird. At times people who do it don't reorder the words, either. I'm not even certain that it's an ESL thing, or if a lot of native English speakers grew up with a lot of ESL-style content and adopted it? Maybe it's just me? Anyway, it's things like:
"Tell me where do I find the nearest park?" vs
"Tell me where I can find the nearest park[, please]"?
"Will somebody explain how can a dog open a door?" vs
"Will somebody explain how a dog can open a door?"
"I was just wondering what colour is a basketball typically?" vs
"I was just wondering what colour a basketball typically is."
I think those top sentences could still be spoken in a way that sounds proper, but they're always mashed together. Instead of being spoken in a way that emphasizes the separate parts.
"Tell me, "where do I find the nearest park?"."
"Will somebody explain: "how can a dog open a door?"." But still would probably be better expressed separately as: "How does a dog open a door? Will somebody explain?"
"I was just wondering: "what colour is a basketball"?."
This is one of those things that I think Dr Geoff Lindsey could make a great video on (if he hasn't already).
English is a subjective language, as spoken in the US.
There are many regional dialects, and everyone will tell you that theirs is the correct one.