[Grammar] Question tags

[tom3m]

What the tag will be if there's 'must'?

e.g. You must study hard, .....(mustn't you/needn't you?)

Personally I am for mustn't. However it seems that my teacher has different opinion.


Thanks

 

[5jj]

Re: Qustion tags

What the tag will be if there's 'must'?

e.g. You must study hard, .....(mustn't you/[STRIKE]needn't you[/STRIKE]?)

Personally I am for 'mustn't'.

You are right.

 

[emsr2d2]

What would the tag [STRIKE]will[/STRIKE] be [STRIKE]if there's[/STRIKE] with 'must'?

e.g. You must study hard, .....(mustn't you/needn't you?)

Personally I am for mustn't. However it seems that my teacher [STRIKE]have[/STRIKE] has a different opinion.


Thanks.

I'm with you - if you use "must", then it's "mustn't".
If it were "You have to study hard..." (which means the same thing), then it would "don't you?"

 

[bhaisahab]

I'm with you - if you use "must", then it's "mustn't".
If it were "You have to study hard..." (which means the same thing), then it would "don't you?"

"You have to study hard, haven't you?" would be my choice. "You have to study hard, don't you?" looks and sounds wrong to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

"You have to study hard, haven't you?" would be my choice. "You have to study hard, don't you?" looks and sounds wrong to me.

I've been considering what you said but I keep coming back to "Don't you?" I think it's because I consider "Haven't you?" to be the question tag relating to a present perfect verb question ("You have been on holiday, haven't you?")

I've tried the "haven't" version with various situations but it sounds very unnatural to me:

"I have to go to school, haven't I?" - sounds unnatural
"I have to go to school, don't I?" - sounds natural.

As usual, it's my personal take on things!

 

[TheParser]

What the tag will be if there's 'must'?

e.g. You must study hard, .....(mustn't you/needn't you?)

Personally I am for mustn't. However it seems that my teacher has different opinion.


Thanks

ONLY A NON-TEACHER'S OPINION


(1) I understand how you feel.

(2) I was fascinated to read a while back that some books in a certain country

(I shall, of course, not name the country except to say that it is near your country)

were teaching the following to their students:

May I go home? No, you mustn't.

May I take your pen? Yes, you may.

Must I do it? No, you needn't.

 

[Tdol]

I use You have to study hard, don't you? as well, though haven't you used. I think of have to as a normal verb and don't use any forms like a modal with it.

 

[~Mav~]

What question tag would you use after this sentence, "After all, this is what you think, ..."? ("Isn't it", or "don't you"?) My choice would be, "isn't it" (After all, THIS IS what you think, isn't it?), but I'm not sure.:-? What do you say?




PS: After re-wording my sentence a little bit ("That's what" instead of "this is"), I got 145 results for "That's what you think, isn't it?" and only 12 for "That's what you think, don't you?".

 

[Tdol]

I'd use That's what/This is what you think, isn't it?

 

[~Mav~]

Thank you very much for your quick response, Tdol. :up:

 

[5jj]

I use You have to study hard, don't you? as well, though haven't you used. I think of have to as a normal verb and don't use any forms like a modal with it.

I am a bit of a traditionalist in my usage, but I am with tdol and ems on this.

Slightly off-topic, I can't imagine anyone saying 'Haven't you to leave soon?' for 'Don't you have to leave soon?'

 

[tom3m]

"You have to study hard, haven't you?" would be my choice. "You have to study hard, don't you?" looks and sounds wrong to me.

If I may ask, why would you choose a tag with 'have'. Have is not a modal verb here. I doubt that in a sentence 'You asked him to study hard.' you would use 'haven't you as well'. Is this still a matter of grammar or rather a matter of personal choice? Can you clarify your choice by quoting a grammar book? Thank you​

 

[5jj]

If I may ask, why would you choose a tag with 'have'. Have is not a modal verb here. I doubt that in a sentence 'You asked him to study hard.' you would use 'haven't you as well'. Is this still a matter of grammar or rather a matter of personal choice? Can you clarify your choice by quoting a grammar book? Thank you

I don't think bhai needs to justify his choice of an acceptable form here.

Auxiliary DO is rarely used with BE functioning as a full verb and, for some speakers of BrE, it is not used with HAVE functioning as a main verb.

A minority of speakers of BrE (including me a few years ago) do not use auxiliary DO with HAVE TO. That usage was the only correct form for prescriptivists when I was at school.The fact that it is dying out does not make it incorrect - yet.

 

[tom3m]

Thank you for the explanation

 

[TheParser]

Is this still a matter of grammar or rather a matter of personal choice? ​

NOT A TEACHER

Based on my books, the Web, and 75 years of life here in the United States, I would say that 99.99% of native-born

Americans would say, "You have to study hard, don't you?"