Learn English – When to use hurt vs hurts

word-choice

So, recently I was thinking of texting:

wao that's nice! Celebrations doesn't hurts .

I am confused if 'hurts' is correct? Or should I use 'hurt'?
I finally wrote 'hurts' and just to be on the safe side reframed the sentence to:

wao that's nice! Celebrations doesn't hurts anyone

But I am still confused. Please help me with the correct usage of the word 'hurts' vs hurt'.

Best Answer

You need to realize that a verb can be either

  • finite (= matches the number of the subject of the sentence) or
  • nonfinite (= no inflection), which are infinitive, participles and gerunds. We are dealing with the infinitive in your example.

For an independent clause (AKA "sentence") you need at least one finite verb and unless you are making a "list" ("She laughs and sings and dances.") you use only one finite verb.

Very simple sentences use only one verb, which by definition must be finite.:

This hurts.

If you negate the sentence, you use an auxiliary verb (-> do, finite) + not, together with the original verb in the infinitive:

This does not hurt
-> This doesn’t hurt.

Which means you have done a bit too much when inflecting both verbs and the correct phrasing is:

Celebrations don’t hurt anyone.

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