[FONT="].[/FONT]Note the correct way to construct a question. Although you will hear native speakers and fluent non-natives using a statement construction with a questioning intonation at the end, we don't recommend that learners try it, and we don't use it in written English except in reported speech.
1) Why are there so many children here?
can I ask it this way:
2) Why there are so many children here?
That's very much street BrE! Please, don't anybody use it (especially when the main verb in the actual sentence is not "is").You're a journalist, innit?
I did not know that word until I saw a teacher use it in a thread about question tags started by man of manners.That's very much street BrE! Please, don't anybody use it (especially when the main verb in the actual sentence is not "is").
As GS said, Your second sentences are not suitable for written English as the intonation cannot be heard.Is there a house in street?
There's a house in the street?
...
So in your examples each second sentence is wrong?
"You are a journalist?" said with a suitable intonation sounds fine to me. Am I wrong?
I agree, though to be fair, in the Welsh dialect, 'isn't it' is commonly heard informally as a catch-all tag question like 'isn't that so' - corresponding to the perfectly standard French n'est-ce pas and the German nicht wahr.*That's very much street BrE! Please, don't anybody use it (especially when the main verb in the actual sentence is not "is").
innit = isn't it = a catch-all tag question for those who don't know how (or can't be bothered) to form a proper tag question.
I agree, though to be fair, In the Welsh dialect, 'isn't it' is commonly heard informally as a catch-all tag question like 'isn't that so' - corresponding to the perfectly standard French n'est-ce pas and the German nicht wahr.*
* I'd be interested to know if other European languages have equivalent expressions.
A
I agree, though to be fair, in the Welsh dialect, 'isn't it' is commonly heard informally as a catch-all tag question like 'isn't that so' - corresponding to the perfectly standard French n'est-ce pas and the German nicht wahr.*
* I'd be interested to know if other European languages have equivalent expressions.
It's kind of funny that No? actually means "correct?" or "isn't that right?" in this usage.
.A couple of more of the sort, please:
1) Do you only have a few children here today?
2) Are there not many children here today?
3) Why are there only a few children here today?
4) There aren't many children here today. Why?
5) Why aren't there many children here today?