Poll

[udara sankalpa]

Question Tags Quiz

[Casiopea]

Here it is:

Q23
You have to arrive before half past eight, __________?
haven't you?
don't you?

I'd choose don't you. The reason being, to me, have to, a quasi-modal, is a two parter: have to + arrive, so the one part tag haven't you? seems awkward.

Let's wait to hear what our British speakers have to say.

[Tdol]

Cas, your modal example doesn't cut the mustard to me. To me, it's correct- the tag/negative/question for 'have to' us the auxiliary do/don't etc. However, obviously things are not the same across the pond; I'll change it, though never use it.

[queenbu]

Cas, your modal example doesn't cut the mustard to me. To me, it's correct- the tag/negative/question for 'have to' us the auxiliary do/don't etc. However, obviously things are not the same across the pond; I'll change it, though never use it.

This is how it is now:
Q23 - You have got to arrive before half past eight, ..........?
haven't you
don't you


I'm curious to know what answer was given as correct before you changed it.
I myself would have chosen 'don't you?'

You don't have to arrive before half past eight, do you?
You have to arrive before half past eight, don't you?

You haven't got to arrive before half past eight, have you?
You have got to arrive before half past eight, haven't you?

P.S.....or should I say N.B.?.....I am not an English teacher.

[Casiopea]

To me, ...- the tag/negative/question for 'have to' us the auxiliary do/don't etc.

Me, too. It's not different across the pond.

If the main verb is a form of the verb have, then do is in the tag:

Main verb: She has a car, doesn't she?


If the main verb contains an auxiliary or a modal, then the auxiliary or modal is in the tag:

Auxiliary: You have seen it, haven't you?
Modal: You would have gone, wouldn't you have?


Problems arise with verbs like have (to); they're quasi-modal in that they function as both a modal and a main verb. Thus:

Main verb: You have to go, don't you?

Modal: You have to be there, haven't you? <awkward in my dialect; but nonetheless possible grammatically>


Standard AmE, to my knowledge, is have to ... don't, and it appears that holds true across the pond for BrE speakers.

[Casiopea]

(And Cas, I'm not clear where you're going with the modal... after all, isn't "do" a modal too?)

I understand you are a teacher in training.

From Modals and auxiliary verbs in English:

Auxiliary do belongs to the same syntactic category as the modals---namely, I(nflection), because it shares their properties with one exception (in contrast to modals, it has an -s form).

Does that help?

[Tdol]

I'm curious to know what answer was given as correct before you changed it.
I myself would have chosen 'don't you?'

Yup.

[udara sankalpa]

Hi everybody

Thank you all very much indeed for the explanations.

Cheers
Udara

[Casiopea]

You're most welcome.