Can we use “dare” in this way?












2
















How dared you speak to me like that?




Is this a correct way to use "dare"? Shouldn't we say?




How dare you speak to me like that?










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    2
















    How dared you speak to me like that?




    Is this a correct way to use "dare"? Shouldn't we say?




    How dare you speak to me like that?










    share







    New contributor




    Arthur Hmayakyan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      2












      2








      2









      How dared you speak to me like that?




      Is this a correct way to use "dare"? Shouldn't we say?




      How dare you speak to me like that?










      share







      New contributor




      Arthur Hmayakyan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.













      How dared you speak to me like that?




      Is this a correct way to use "dare"? Shouldn't we say?




      How dare you speak to me like that?








      grammar





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      share







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      share



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      asked 2 hours ago









      Arthur HmayakyanArthur Hmayakyan

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      New contributor





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          5 Answers
          5






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          3














          Dare is sometimes called a semi-modal verb, because it sometimes patterns like a modal, and sometimes like a normal verb.



          When it patterns like a modal, it takes inversion, and "not" negation, rather than do-support ("Dare you?" "I dare not").



          When it patterns like a normal verb, it takes do-support: ("He didn't dare go", "Do you dare pick it up?")



          Both forms are found, and are grammatical.



          Personally I am very happy with how dare you? and find how dared you? strange and awkward. But I observe in the iWeb corpus that how dared [pronoun] is slightly more common than how did [pronoun] dare.






          share|improve this answer
























          • I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

            – FumbleFingers
            1 hour ago



















          1














          Technically speaking, if you were complaining about how someone had spoken to you in the past, you could reasonably use past tense dared.



          But idiomatically, the expression How dare you! [do/say something outrageous] is something of a "fixed expression / set phrase", and I suspect some people might have misgivings about modifying dare for tense like that. To my ear, it would be at least slightly more "natural" (though of course it can't be fully natural, given it's riffing of a "frozen form") to use...




          How could you dare speak to me like that! (using could as the past tense of can)




          But that's a fine point. For most purposes, OP's version (or indeed, How could you have dared...) wouldn't be noticed as either "incorrect" or "unusual".





          EDIT: Or perhaps not such a "fine point" after all. Here are some relevant searches in Google Books...




          How dare you say that! - 25,100 hits for the "idiomatic standard" present tense version
          How could you dare say that! - 211 hits
          How dared you say that! - 3 hits
          How did you dare say that! - 0 hits




          Note that I added the exclamation marks myself (GB doesn't do punctuation). Obviously, that could be followed by a clause (How dare you say that I'm fat!), but that would be the same for all variations, so the relative preferences should still be valid.






          share|improve this answer


























          • The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

            – Colin Fine
            55 mins ago





















          0














          The second is correct in the present, but if it was in the past, I would say




          How did you dare to speak to me like that?







          share|improve this answer































            0















            How dared you to speak to me like that




            is fine. It refers to a past event.




            How dare you speak to me like that




            is fine. It refers to a current event.




            How dared you speak to me like that




            is just wrong. It scrambles the time markers in what is an idiomatic construction.



            EDIT: Weather Vane and I agree on the substance. And




            How did you dare to speak to me like that




            seems far more euphonious than "how dared you," but there is a perfectly acceptable past form of the verb "dare."






            share|improve this answer
























            • I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

              – Colin Fine
              2 hours ago













            • @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

              – FumbleFingers
              1 hour ago



















            0














            "How dare you/he/she/they [do something (present tense)]" is a set expression conveying present anger that an action is being done, has just been done, or was done in the more distant past. The tense of 'dare' does not change, nor does the tense of the verb of the action being complained about.



            I come into my room. You have a glass in your hand. How dare you drink my whisky!



            You tell me that your brother called me a fool yesterday. How dare he say that!



            I recall that a politician, who I don't support, did a bad thing 20 years ago. How dare he do that!



            Although the expression is phrased like a question, it is not one. If we wish to know how someone found the courage to do a dangerous thing in the past, we would phrase the question conventionally. We might say "How did you dare to attack the gang of thugs, armed only with a stick?", or "How did he dare to enter the lion's cage, knowing it might kill him?"



            To express sorrow or anger that someone behaved badly, we could ask e.g. "How could you speak to my grandmother like that?"






            share|improve this answer























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              5 Answers
              5






              active

              oldest

              votes








              5 Answers
              5






              active

              oldest

              votes









              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes









              3














              Dare is sometimes called a semi-modal verb, because it sometimes patterns like a modal, and sometimes like a normal verb.



              When it patterns like a modal, it takes inversion, and "not" negation, rather than do-support ("Dare you?" "I dare not").



              When it patterns like a normal verb, it takes do-support: ("He didn't dare go", "Do you dare pick it up?")



              Both forms are found, and are grammatical.



              Personally I am very happy with how dare you? and find how dared you? strange and awkward. But I observe in the iWeb corpus that how dared [pronoun] is slightly more common than how did [pronoun] dare.






              share|improve this answer
























              • I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

                – FumbleFingers
                1 hour ago
















              3














              Dare is sometimes called a semi-modal verb, because it sometimes patterns like a modal, and sometimes like a normal verb.



              When it patterns like a modal, it takes inversion, and "not" negation, rather than do-support ("Dare you?" "I dare not").



              When it patterns like a normal verb, it takes do-support: ("He didn't dare go", "Do you dare pick it up?")



              Both forms are found, and are grammatical.



              Personally I am very happy with how dare you? and find how dared you? strange and awkward. But I observe in the iWeb corpus that how dared [pronoun] is slightly more common than how did [pronoun] dare.






              share|improve this answer
























              • I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

                – FumbleFingers
                1 hour ago














              3












              3








              3







              Dare is sometimes called a semi-modal verb, because it sometimes patterns like a modal, and sometimes like a normal verb.



              When it patterns like a modal, it takes inversion, and "not" negation, rather than do-support ("Dare you?" "I dare not").



              When it patterns like a normal verb, it takes do-support: ("He didn't dare go", "Do you dare pick it up?")



              Both forms are found, and are grammatical.



              Personally I am very happy with how dare you? and find how dared you? strange and awkward. But I observe in the iWeb corpus that how dared [pronoun] is slightly more common than how did [pronoun] dare.






              share|improve this answer













              Dare is sometimes called a semi-modal verb, because it sometimes patterns like a modal, and sometimes like a normal verb.



              When it patterns like a modal, it takes inversion, and "not" negation, rather than do-support ("Dare you?" "I dare not").



              When it patterns like a normal verb, it takes do-support: ("He didn't dare go", "Do you dare pick it up?")



              Both forms are found, and are grammatical.



              Personally I am very happy with how dare you? and find how dared you? strange and awkward. But I observe in the iWeb corpus that how dared [pronoun] is slightly more common than how did [pronoun] dare.







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered 2 hours ago









              Colin FineColin Fine

              28.9k24156




              28.9k24156













              • I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

                – FumbleFingers
                1 hour ago



















              • I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

                – FumbleFingers
                1 hour ago

















              I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

              – FumbleFingers
              1 hour ago





              I don't know about that "iWeb corpus", but my first thought was to introduce another modal (could) that would allow me to retain dare without inflection (precisely because How dare you! is a "set expression" nowadays). Perhaps iWeb could reinforce what I found from Google Books.

              – FumbleFingers
              1 hour ago













              1














              Technically speaking, if you were complaining about how someone had spoken to you in the past, you could reasonably use past tense dared.



              But idiomatically, the expression How dare you! [do/say something outrageous] is something of a "fixed expression / set phrase", and I suspect some people might have misgivings about modifying dare for tense like that. To my ear, it would be at least slightly more "natural" (though of course it can't be fully natural, given it's riffing of a "frozen form") to use...




              How could you dare speak to me like that! (using could as the past tense of can)




              But that's a fine point. For most purposes, OP's version (or indeed, How could you have dared...) wouldn't be noticed as either "incorrect" or "unusual".





              EDIT: Or perhaps not such a "fine point" after all. Here are some relevant searches in Google Books...




              How dare you say that! - 25,100 hits for the "idiomatic standard" present tense version
              How could you dare say that! - 211 hits
              How dared you say that! - 3 hits
              How did you dare say that! - 0 hits




              Note that I added the exclamation marks myself (GB doesn't do punctuation). Obviously, that could be followed by a clause (How dare you say that I'm fat!), but that would be the same for all variations, so the relative preferences should still be valid.






              share|improve this answer


























              • The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

                – Colin Fine
                55 mins ago


















              1














              Technically speaking, if you were complaining about how someone had spoken to you in the past, you could reasonably use past tense dared.



              But idiomatically, the expression How dare you! [do/say something outrageous] is something of a "fixed expression / set phrase", and I suspect some people might have misgivings about modifying dare for tense like that. To my ear, it would be at least slightly more "natural" (though of course it can't be fully natural, given it's riffing of a "frozen form") to use...




              How could you dare speak to me like that! (using could as the past tense of can)




              But that's a fine point. For most purposes, OP's version (or indeed, How could you have dared...) wouldn't be noticed as either "incorrect" or "unusual".





              EDIT: Or perhaps not such a "fine point" after all. Here are some relevant searches in Google Books...




              How dare you say that! - 25,100 hits for the "idiomatic standard" present tense version
              How could you dare say that! - 211 hits
              How dared you say that! - 3 hits
              How did you dare say that! - 0 hits




              Note that I added the exclamation marks myself (GB doesn't do punctuation). Obviously, that could be followed by a clause (How dare you say that I'm fat!), but that would be the same for all variations, so the relative preferences should still be valid.






              share|improve this answer


























              • The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

                – Colin Fine
                55 mins ago
















              1












              1








              1







              Technically speaking, if you were complaining about how someone had spoken to you in the past, you could reasonably use past tense dared.



              But idiomatically, the expression How dare you! [do/say something outrageous] is something of a "fixed expression / set phrase", and I suspect some people might have misgivings about modifying dare for tense like that. To my ear, it would be at least slightly more "natural" (though of course it can't be fully natural, given it's riffing of a "frozen form") to use...




              How could you dare speak to me like that! (using could as the past tense of can)




              But that's a fine point. For most purposes, OP's version (or indeed, How could you have dared...) wouldn't be noticed as either "incorrect" or "unusual".





              EDIT: Or perhaps not such a "fine point" after all. Here are some relevant searches in Google Books...




              How dare you say that! - 25,100 hits for the "idiomatic standard" present tense version
              How could you dare say that! - 211 hits
              How dared you say that! - 3 hits
              How did you dare say that! - 0 hits




              Note that I added the exclamation marks myself (GB doesn't do punctuation). Obviously, that could be followed by a clause (How dare you say that I'm fat!), but that would be the same for all variations, so the relative preferences should still be valid.






              share|improve this answer















              Technically speaking, if you were complaining about how someone had spoken to you in the past, you could reasonably use past tense dared.



              But idiomatically, the expression How dare you! [do/say something outrageous] is something of a "fixed expression / set phrase", and I suspect some people might have misgivings about modifying dare for tense like that. To my ear, it would be at least slightly more "natural" (though of course it can't be fully natural, given it's riffing of a "frozen form") to use...




              How could you dare speak to me like that! (using could as the past tense of can)




              But that's a fine point. For most purposes, OP's version (or indeed, How could you have dared...) wouldn't be noticed as either "incorrect" or "unusual".





              EDIT: Or perhaps not such a "fine point" after all. Here are some relevant searches in Google Books...




              How dare you say that! - 25,100 hits for the "idiomatic standard" present tense version
              How could you dare say that! - 211 hits
              How dared you say that! - 3 hits
              How did you dare say that! - 0 hits




              Note that I added the exclamation marks myself (GB doesn't do punctuation). Obviously, that could be followed by a clause (How dare you say that I'm fat!), but that would be the same for all variations, so the relative preferences should still be valid.







              share|improve this answer














              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer








              edited 1 hour ago

























              answered 2 hours ago









              FumbleFingersFumbleFingers

              44.2k154118




              44.2k154118













              • The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

                – Colin Fine
                55 mins ago





















              • The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

                – Colin Fine
                55 mins ago



















              The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

              – Colin Fine
              55 mins ago







              The iWeb corpus is not much help for those examples, perhaps because being a corpus of website material, that sort of direct address doesn't occur much. Only the first of those gets any hits at all: 89 of them. Without "say that", the figures are 4783, 17, 10, 13 for your four phrases respectively. iWeb is one of a dozen corpora available at BYU

              – Colin Fine
              55 mins ago













              0














              The second is correct in the present, but if it was in the past, I would say




              How did you dare to speak to me like that?







              share|improve this answer




























                0














                The second is correct in the present, but if it was in the past, I would say




                How did you dare to speak to me like that?







                share|improve this answer


























                  0












                  0








                  0







                  The second is correct in the present, but if it was in the past, I would say




                  How did you dare to speak to me like that?







                  share|improve this answer













                  The second is correct in the present, but if it was in the past, I would say




                  How did you dare to speak to me like that?








                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 2 hours ago









                  Weather VaneWeather Vane

                  3,7641417




                  3,7641417























                      0















                      How dared you to speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a past event.




                      How dare you speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a current event.




                      How dared you speak to me like that




                      is just wrong. It scrambles the time markers in what is an idiomatic construction.



                      EDIT: Weather Vane and I agree on the substance. And




                      How did you dare to speak to me like that




                      seems far more euphonious than "how dared you," but there is a perfectly acceptable past form of the verb "dare."






                      share|improve this answer
























                      • I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

                        – Colin Fine
                        2 hours ago













                      • @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

                        – FumbleFingers
                        1 hour ago
















                      0















                      How dared you to speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a past event.




                      How dare you speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a current event.




                      How dared you speak to me like that




                      is just wrong. It scrambles the time markers in what is an idiomatic construction.



                      EDIT: Weather Vane and I agree on the substance. And




                      How did you dare to speak to me like that




                      seems far more euphonious than "how dared you," but there is a perfectly acceptable past form of the verb "dare."






                      share|improve this answer
























                      • I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

                        – Colin Fine
                        2 hours ago













                      • @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

                        – FumbleFingers
                        1 hour ago














                      0












                      0








                      0








                      How dared you to speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a past event.




                      How dare you speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a current event.




                      How dared you speak to me like that




                      is just wrong. It scrambles the time markers in what is an idiomatic construction.



                      EDIT: Weather Vane and I agree on the substance. And




                      How did you dare to speak to me like that




                      seems far more euphonious than "how dared you," but there is a perfectly acceptable past form of the verb "dare."






                      share|improve this answer














                      How dared you to speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a past event.




                      How dare you speak to me like that




                      is fine. It refers to a current event.




                      How dared you speak to me like that




                      is just wrong. It scrambles the time markers in what is an idiomatic construction.



                      EDIT: Weather Vane and I agree on the substance. And




                      How did you dare to speak to me like that




                      seems far more euphonious than "how dared you," but there is a perfectly acceptable past form of the verb "dare."







                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered 2 hours ago









                      Jeff MorrowJeff Morrow

                      9,9461125




                      9,9461125













                      • I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

                        – Colin Fine
                        2 hours ago













                      • @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

                        – FumbleFingers
                        1 hour ago



















                      • I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

                        – Colin Fine
                        2 hours ago













                      • @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

                        – FumbleFingers
                        1 hour ago

















                      I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

                      – Colin Fine
                      2 hours ago







                      I don't agree with much of this answer. How dared you is using dare as a modal, and in that form, it doesn't take a to infinitive (see [this])(grammaring.com/the-semi-modal-dare). On the other hand, How dared you speak to me like that is perfectly consistent time-wise, because speak is a bare infinitive, with no tense. Compare How can you speak like that? (present) vs How could you speak like that? (past).

                      – Colin Fine
                      2 hours ago















                      @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

                      – FumbleFingers
                      1 hour ago





                      @ColinFine: I didn't have the relevant knowledge (or terminology! :) to hand when I somewhat cautiously advanced my proposition that it doesn't feel quite right to explicitly change the tense of dare itself in this particular "remonstrance, expostulation, call-it-what-you-will". But after posting it, and seeing that there were two other answers disagreeing with what I thought, I was heartened to find what I consider "supportive data" from Google Books!

                      – FumbleFingers
                      1 hour ago











                      0














                      "How dare you/he/she/they [do something (present tense)]" is a set expression conveying present anger that an action is being done, has just been done, or was done in the more distant past. The tense of 'dare' does not change, nor does the tense of the verb of the action being complained about.



                      I come into my room. You have a glass in your hand. How dare you drink my whisky!



                      You tell me that your brother called me a fool yesterday. How dare he say that!



                      I recall that a politician, who I don't support, did a bad thing 20 years ago. How dare he do that!



                      Although the expression is phrased like a question, it is not one. If we wish to know how someone found the courage to do a dangerous thing in the past, we would phrase the question conventionally. We might say "How did you dare to attack the gang of thugs, armed only with a stick?", or "How did he dare to enter the lion's cage, knowing it might kill him?"



                      To express sorrow or anger that someone behaved badly, we could ask e.g. "How could you speak to my grandmother like that?"






                      share|improve this answer




























                        0














                        "How dare you/he/she/they [do something (present tense)]" is a set expression conveying present anger that an action is being done, has just been done, or was done in the more distant past. The tense of 'dare' does not change, nor does the tense of the verb of the action being complained about.



                        I come into my room. You have a glass in your hand. How dare you drink my whisky!



                        You tell me that your brother called me a fool yesterday. How dare he say that!



                        I recall that a politician, who I don't support, did a bad thing 20 years ago. How dare he do that!



                        Although the expression is phrased like a question, it is not one. If we wish to know how someone found the courage to do a dangerous thing in the past, we would phrase the question conventionally. We might say "How did you dare to attack the gang of thugs, armed only with a stick?", or "How did he dare to enter the lion's cage, knowing it might kill him?"



                        To express sorrow or anger that someone behaved badly, we could ask e.g. "How could you speak to my grandmother like that?"






                        share|improve this answer


























                          0












                          0








                          0







                          "How dare you/he/she/they [do something (present tense)]" is a set expression conveying present anger that an action is being done, has just been done, or was done in the more distant past. The tense of 'dare' does not change, nor does the tense of the verb of the action being complained about.



                          I come into my room. You have a glass in your hand. How dare you drink my whisky!



                          You tell me that your brother called me a fool yesterday. How dare he say that!



                          I recall that a politician, who I don't support, did a bad thing 20 years ago. How dare he do that!



                          Although the expression is phrased like a question, it is not one. If we wish to know how someone found the courage to do a dangerous thing in the past, we would phrase the question conventionally. We might say "How did you dare to attack the gang of thugs, armed only with a stick?", or "How did he dare to enter the lion's cage, knowing it might kill him?"



                          To express sorrow or anger that someone behaved badly, we could ask e.g. "How could you speak to my grandmother like that?"






                          share|improve this answer













                          "How dare you/he/she/they [do something (present tense)]" is a set expression conveying present anger that an action is being done, has just been done, or was done in the more distant past. The tense of 'dare' does not change, nor does the tense of the verb of the action being complained about.



                          I come into my room. You have a glass in your hand. How dare you drink my whisky!



                          You tell me that your brother called me a fool yesterday. How dare he say that!



                          I recall that a politician, who I don't support, did a bad thing 20 years ago. How dare he do that!



                          Although the expression is phrased like a question, it is not one. If we wish to know how someone found the courage to do a dangerous thing in the past, we would phrase the question conventionally. We might say "How did you dare to attack the gang of thugs, armed only with a stick?", or "How did he dare to enter the lion's cage, knowing it might kill him?"



                          To express sorrow or anger that someone behaved badly, we could ask e.g. "How could you speak to my grandmother like that?"







                          share|improve this answer












                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer










                          answered 1 hour ago









                          Michael HarveyMichael Harvey

                          13.1k11330




                          13.1k11330






















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                              Arthur Hmayakyan is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















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