“They herd cattle, and raise corn, just as we used to do”; i.e., to herd cattle and raise corn. Do is sometimes thus used as a sort of pro-verb to represent an active verb or a phrase.
Source: wiktionary
Pro-verb
Synonyms for "pro-verb"
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Translations
4 translations across 4 languages.
Dutch
1 entries- proverbum noun (pro-form for a verb or verb phrase)
French
1 entries- pro-verbe noun (pro-form for a verb or verb phrase)
Japanese
1 entries- 代動詞 noun (pro-form for a verb or verb phrase)
Russian
1 entries- местоглаго́лие noun (pro-form for a verb or verb phrase)
Sample sentences
2 total sentences available.
The pro-verb do is like a pronoun; just as a pronoun replaces the entire NP, the pro-verb replaces an entire VP.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.