How very dare you!
The phrase:
How very dare you!
... was originally used by English comedian and actor Frankie Howard, but has since found fame in the UK through the Catherine Tate show.
In this sentence, is the word very a modifier, and if so, what does it modify?
This sentence is obviously exclamatory in force, but, syntactically, is it an exclamative or an interrogative clause? Note that this sentence exhibits inversion, but that inversion can occur in both interrogative and exclamative clauses.
Is dare a modal verb here? How can we tell?
Solution 1:
- It is strange, and jarring, for "very" to modify a verb, which is the joke here. Normally as an adverb, "very" is only an intensifier and only capable of modifying adjectives or other adverbs. As an adjective it has limited use to modify thoughts and ideas as a substitute for the word "mere". Here it is modifying (intensifying) the verb "dare".
- Although used with the force of an exclamation, the phrase "How (very) dare you?" is a (rhetorical) question, revealing itself thus by the subject/object inversion. The phrase rearranged as an exclamation would be: "How (very) you dare".
- Dare is a modal verb here. This is illustrated by the inversion and also by extending the sentence to include an infinitive (e.g. how dare you do that?), the infinitive is naked (i.e. no "to" - "how dare you to do that" would not sound right).