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Are my sentences correct? Can I use them instead of "Do you exercise?"

1."Do you do any exercise?" 2."Do you do exercise?" 3."Do you do any exercises?" 4."Do you do exercises?" I am asking about BrE.

Antonia A
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2 Answers2

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All your examples are correct. "Exercise" is both a noun and a verb.

  • "I exercise" is an example of verb use.

As a noun, the singular "exercise" can be a collective term for any number of individual exercise routines, but you can also refer to those individual routines, for example, situps, burpees, crunches, etc with the plural "exercises". So you could say:

  • I have done some exercises.
  • I have done some exercise.
Astralbee
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    Some contexts use one rather than another. Piano students are more likely to speak of "doing their scales and exercises", rather than "getting some exercise". – Peter Sep 08 '20 at 12:49
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According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the noun exercise can be countable or uncountable. For most uncountable/countable nouns, the uncountable form refers to something in general, for example cheese or sugar, whereas the countable form refers to a particular type. Cheddar, Edam and Roquefort are cheeses: and sucrose, fructose and glucose are sugars.

The same applies to exercise: It is used in the uncountable sense to refer to exercise in general... physical exertion of any kind is uncountable exercise. It is used in the countable sense to refer to a specific kind of exercise: squats, arm curls, etc.

Looking at your sentences, 1 and 2 refer to exercise in general, 3 and 4 refer to specific kinds of exercise. 1 and 2 are normal questions, whereas 3 and 4 sound a bit strange because the question doesn't seem to be about specific kinds of exercise. This question would make more sense for the countable form, because it is asking about specific kinds of exercise.

What exercises do you do?

In the same way, "do you like cheeses?" sounds wrong, but "what cheeses do you like?" sounds fine.

JavaLatte
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  • "What cheeses do you like?" Is fine. In the same way "What exercises do you do?" Is correct too, isn't it? Meaning specific ones. And "What exercise do you do?" I am asking generally isn't wrong either, is it? – Antonia A Sep 08 '20 at 13:51
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    @AntoniaA If somebody said "I have had a lot less trouble with back pain since I started exercising", you might reply "Oh, that's interesting. I have back pain. What exercise do you do?"... because you are asking about one specific exercise- the one that fixes the back pain. You could in principle use it for exercise in general, but what means that you are asking for specifics. – JavaLatte Sep 09 '20 at 03:41
  • OK. I understand. But "What exercises do you?" You wrote it separately. This question asks about specific exercises but depending on context can be a general question. Am I right? – Antonia A Sep 09 '20 at 05:10
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    @AntoniaA "What exercises do you do?" uses the plural (ie countable) form, so the question asks only about specific exercises. To talk about exercise in general, you would have to use the uncountable (singular) form. "What exercise do you do?" is about general exercise and, if asked, I would assume that the questioner wanted to know how much exercise I do- and maybe a general description of the type of exercise- walking, cycling... – JavaLatte Sep 09 '20 at 06:01