A: I have lost my phone. B: You have?

[Mobin Shabani]

Hi everyone,

In the following dialogue the auxiliary verb have is used to show surprise.

A: I have lost my phone
B: You have?

But what about the following example?

A:I haven’t ever had chocolate in my life
B:You haven’t?

Should B respond with a negative auxiliary verb to show surprise?

 

[emsr2d2]

They're both OK. Note that (in BrE, at least) we'd use the usual interrogative word order: "Have you?" and "Haven't you?" I'm not sure I agree that your word order indicates surprise any better than the one I use. It's the tone of voice that indicates surprise.

 

[Skrej]

I might even repeat the tag in the reverse order to show surprise (or possibly sarcasm, depending on tone).

You have, have you?

However, that doesn't work with a negative tag.

 

[emsr2d2]

You have, have you?

That word order is sometimes used to express [sarcastic] disbelief too.

In fact, where I work, a rather snarky colleague used it just the other day. Let's call her Sarah. She was asked by a [senior] colleague (Mary) to do something. Sarah said "I'll only do it if the boss tells me to". Mary went off to find the boss (Kate), told her what had happened and Kate said "Go back and tell her I said she has to do it". Mary dutifully trotted back to Sarah and said "Kate said she also wants you to do it". Sarah's response was "Oh, she did, did she?!" That clearly expressed that Sarah didn't believe Mary.

(In case anyone's interested, Sarah did grudgingly do the task, but it later blew up into a row between Sarah and Mary, and very soon Kate is going to have to deal with Sarah's attitude to authority.)

 

[Mobin Shabani]

I might even repeat the tag in the reverse order to show surprise (or possibly sarcasm, depending on tone).

You have, have you?

However, that doesn't work with a negative tag.

That word order is sometimes used to express [sarcastic] disbelief too.

In fact, where I work, a rather snarky colleague used it just the other day. Let's call her Sarah. She was asked by a [senior] colleague (Mary) to do something. Sarah said "I'll only do it if the boss tells me to". Mary went off to find the boss (Kate), told her what had happened and Kate said "Go back and tell her I said she has to do it". Mary dutifully trotted back to Sarah and said "Kate said she also wants you to do it". Sarah's response was "Oh, she did, did she?!" That clearly expressed that Sarah didn't believe Mary.

(In case anyone's interested, Sarah did grudgingly do the task, but it later blew up into a row between Sarah and Mary, and very soon Kate is going to have to deal with Sarah's attitude to authority.)

Thank you for the reply. Does the tag question did she have a rising or falling intonation?

 

[Skrej]

If it's truly a question and you're honestly not certain, use rising intonation. If you're fairly sure you're correct and are just making a comment, use falling intonation.

This is true with question tags in general.

Rising = uncertain, genuine question, seeking new info (expect an actual answer)
Falling =certain, making a comment, and seeking agreement (but don't necessarily expect an actual answer).

She didn't do her homework, did she?(You think she probably didn't but don't know for sure.)
She didn't do her homework, did she? (You're almost certain she didn't and are just commenting on the fact.)