How dare they / them (2025)

I'm stumped.

Let's say someone wronged you, and you are talking to your friends.

One of your friends says "how dare they / them".

What does your friend say?

This stumps me as a native speaker.

"how dare they / them"

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Compare with, "How are they? The grammatical structure is identical.

How are they?

How are them?

Now just add the 'd'.

How dare they?

How dare them?

I've never heard them there. It doesn't make sense.

Dare is the modal verb. They is the subject.

Add a bit more to the sentence: how dare they do this!​ It will be clear that 'them' is impossible there.

Similarly: how could they! how can they!

perpend said:

"dare" is not the verb "to be".

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Did someone say it was?

The question form "<interrogative adverb> <verb> <nominative pronoun>?" comes from Old English.

Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
John 13:36 (King James Version)

42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David.
Matthew 22:42 (King James Version)

It is no longer used for active verbs but its use continues with "to be" and with auxiliary verbs. It lives on in some idiomatic expressions, e.g. you may hear some people saying, "What say you?"

It's used to ask someone "what do you think about this?" ... it is idiomatic English. It is old-fashioned and appears mostly in spoken English these days.
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/what-say-you

Biffo said:

The question form "<interrogative adverb> <verb> <nominative pronoun>?" comes from Old English.

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In this case though, dare functions as a modal verb rather than a main verb and still conforms to current usage.

• How can he ignore it?
• When should I go?
• How dare​ they say such things?

(Also little quibble. The 1611 Bible is really Early Modern English rather than Old English.)

natkretep said:

In this case though, dare functions as a modal verb rather than a main verb and still conforms to current usage.

• How can he ignore it?
• When should I go?
• How dare​ they say such things?

(Also little quibble. The 1611 Bible is really Early Modern English rather than Old English.)

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(a) I called them 'auxiliary' verbs #12. If you want to be picky, "to dare" is a semi-modal verb, here being used in its auxiliary form.

A list of verbs that (can) function as auxiliaries in English is as follows: be (am, are, is, was, were, being, been), can, could, dare, do (does, did), have (has, had, having), may, might, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, would
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_verb

(b) If you read carefully, I said "comes

Old English." That was both true and deliberate. I picked Bible examples because they are easy to find. At no point did I say the KJ Bible is written

Old English.

... Old English allows inversion of subject and verb as a general strategy for forming questions, while modern English uses this strategy almost only with auxiliary verbs and the main verb "to be", requiring do-support in other cases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_grammar

perpend said:

I have both "How dare they" and "How dare them" stuck in my mind, for what it's worth.

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Them who says "how dare them (do something)" is jest rong.

(If you search for 'how dare,' you'll find existing discussions.)