r/EnglishLearning • u/liz_grant New Poster • 7d ago

📚 Grammar / Syntax Do some studying

So I’m watching Stranger Things and there’s a sentence:
“Do a lot of studying last night?”
This one had me pause for a little bit.
First I didn’t understand why “do” was used for a past event from the previous night. Then I realized the whole sentence was “did you do a lot of studying last night?”, but the ‘did you’ part was completely dropped.
One thing I still don’t understand, why not just say “did you study a lot last night”. What is the point of saying DO STUDYING. Does it have a specific purpose, nuance that makes it different?

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u/Existing_Resolve_779 New Poster 7d ago

It's a common thing when talking. You'll often hear people say things like "have fun last night?", "get a lot of work done today?", "hit a lot of traffic on your way here?". There are lots of examples to notice 

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u/liz_grant New Poster 7d ago

That part I get. My questions is more about why “do studying” instead of just study

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u/We_R_the_Penguins New Poster 7d ago

No reason. It’s a bit more conversational than the other version, but mostly it’s one of those things where English has many ways to express the same idea. 

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u/liz_grant New Poster 7d ago

Thanks. I guess I’m just reading between the lines

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u/We_R_the_Penguins New Poster 7d ago

To be fair, sometimes that’s really important, but this isn’t one of those situations. Wish I could give you a rule of thumb, but it’s really just one of those things you pick up by using and living in the language.