2026-10-20 11:16 UTC
In my nowhere near professional opinion, I think it’s because in the phrase “You didn’t build this”, “didn’t” is in the present tense, so “build” has to follow in the same tense. If the phrase were “You hadn’t built this”, because “hadn’t” is past tense (or at least acts that way), then “built” would follow. My only justification is that this sounds right to my ear, and it’s a loose theory as to why. The only consistent thing about English is the inconsistency
Replies (1)
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@4am@lemmy.zip 2026-10-20 13:27
You are almost correct; “didn’t” (or “did not” in its uncontracted form) is considered past-tense. Since you’ve already shifted the tense to the past, you no longer need to do so for the following verb - you are “already in” the past! So “didn’t go” vs “didn’t went”, “didn’t build” Vs “didn’t built”. The verbs following a past-tense auxiliary verb retain their simple form.