TAG QUESTIONS: WHAT MAKES THEM CLOSE TO RHETORICAL QUESTIONS?
The topic seems exhausted, doesn’t it? This sentence, by the way, is a tag question in fact. And that’s it —what else is there to be said about them?
Actually, quite a lot. Are you sure you know how to make tag questions with "He had better wait.” — which auxiliary is used? To spare you all possible doubt — use "had”: "He had better do wait, hadn’t he?”
Another case arousing doubt is the construction expressing preference:
"You would rather stay at home, wouldn’t you?"
"You would rather I stayed at home, would you?"
It is a little bit different in the following sentence: "You had better wait a little.” Can a tag be added to it? As a question it would look quite weird, wouldn’t it? Or would it?
Here is how it works: a tag, if added to this sentence, would not mean a question at all. It would mean a positive statement. You know that a person you are addressing had better wait. Converted into a form of a tag quesiton it will acquire some emotion – disapproval, or simply a conversational matter-of-fact attitude. So "You had better wait, hadn’t you?” will become a rhetorical question, which doesn’t require any answer. As such,it doesn’t need the interrogation mark in the end: "You had better wait, hadn’t you.”
The sentences "He had better wait, hadn’t he?” and "You had better wait, hadn’t you?” have a usual structure — positive statement —negative tag, or negative statement — positive tag. "He had better now wait, hadn’t he?” But this is not always the case.
There also exhist same-way question tags — positive statement —positive tag, or negativestatement —negative tag. This structure is used not to make real questions but rather use the structure as a "social phrase”, that is, to express surprise, anger, interest etc.:
"So you are getting married soon, are you? This is really nice."
"You think you are being clever, are you? Think again."
WAYS TO ANSWER TAG QUESTIONS can cause a lot of confusion if you do it wrong. Here are some examples:
Elf is a myth, isn’t it?
Elf isn’t a myth, is it?
The answer in both question is YES IT IS, because elf is a myth.
Elf is a domestic animal, is it?
Elf is not a domestic animal, is it?
The answer is the same to both questions — NO IT IS NOT, because elf is not a domestic animal.
If you start a sentence with a negative word when you mean positive, it doesn’t have the meaning of a question.
"Isn’t the song great?” is a rhetorical question, when you inform somebody in a converdational way that the song is great.
"Isn’t he smart?” means that you want to share with somebody that he is actually smart. That is why instead of interrogation mark you can put a period at the end.
The same can be said about same-way questions:
"Isn’t the weather beastly.”
"Aren’t the pictures bizzare.”
And the last thing I would like to discuss is some special cases:
I am the boss, aren’t I?
You have to get up early, don’t you?
Nothing happened in the end, did it?
Let’s do it, shall we?
He’d better wait, hadn’t he?
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