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imputed income charges/days
once= adjective?
Sep 16, 2004 05:02
20 yrs ago
2 viewers *
English term

"no" as a question tag"

English Art/Literary Linguistics Grammar
Are sentences such as "This is better, no?" grammatically acceptable in English? I usually write "This is better, isn't it?", but sometimes you also read "no" instead of "isn't it". If it is not entirely wrong, it is probably informal or conversational, no? I tried in vain to find in answer in my grammar books.
Responses
4 +15 Not really
4 +1 Structural translation of another language to English
4 grammatically wrong but....
4 -1 grammatically ok

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com Sep 17, 2004:
Thank you all for your help. I asked this question on another forum, too. I found out that native speakers of English in the UK usually object to using "no" as a question tag. They say it is ungrammatical and should never be used. People in the US say it can be used in very informal situations, but this usage should be avoided in formal (written) contexts, so I would not say that Tegan's answer is wrong. I've come to the conclusion that if this question tag is used, it is used in conversational/informal US-English, whereas it is never used in the UK.
Kim Metzger Sep 16, 2004:
Christian, I'm confident you won't find an explanation of the use of "no" as a question tag in English. But here's one that gives examples of Spanish question tags. http://www.englishspanishlink.com/deluxewriter/gram question...
Non-ProZ.com Sep 16, 2004:
BTW, a link to a website explaining the usage of "no" would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Responses

+15
2 mins
Selected

Not really

When native speakers of English write or say "This is better, no?" they are just having a little fun mimicking Spanish, for example.

You're right, "This is better, isn't it?" is the standard English tag.


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Note added at 5 mins (2004-09-16 05:07:15 GMT)
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http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/question_tags...
Peer comment(s):
agree ValtBt
3 mins
agree Louise Mawbey : I have never heard "no" used in this way (native speaker - UK)
5 mins
agree Gayle Wallimann : I agree that it is just a mimick of Spanish, or French (perhaps Italian, too?) and that it is not standard English.
11 mins
agree Saleh Chowdhury, Ph.D.
20 mins
agree Lamprini Kosma
23 mins
agree Narasimhan Raghavan
27 mins
agree Hacene
40 mins
agree CMJ_Trans (X) : I often use this, especially when exchanging emails - it is a sort of shorthand
1 hr
agree Nizamettin Yigit
2 hrs
agree Orsolya Mance
3 hrs
agree Jörgen Slet
4 hrs
agree Mapi : I've seen it used, but even as a non-native find it strange and only acceptable in a very coloquial context, written or spoken
10 hrs
agree Laurel Porter (X) : Perfection, Kim.
11 hrs
agree Alfa Trans (X)
13 hrs
agree Deborah Workman : Ditto CMJ_Trans, when writing to a Span/Eng pal.
17 hrs
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3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Kim, thank you very much for your help. This question tag is probably never used in the UK, but I've found out that it is used in very informal/conversational contexts in the US. Nevertheless, "no" as a question tag is considered ungrammatical, but it is ocassionally used."
-1
52 mins
English term (edited): no?

grammatically ok

It's used more self-consciously, as Kim said, tho' I think it would still be grammatically acceptable. But I guess it depends on who it is that says it's acceptable... you probably wouldn't find it in the Chicago Manual of Style or MLA handbooks. But readers would understand the general meaning. Grammatically correct, however, in the sense that it "makes sense," and would be recognized by native English speakers.

Something to be used with caution, however... not really of term paper caliber. You are right that it is informal/ conversational. Some places they say "ay?" at the end, some places "right?" ... and the list goes on. I would probably say that "ay" (as in the Great North of Canada, I'm told) as the question tag is the closest relative to the "no?" that I can think of.
Peer comment(s):
disagree David Moore (X) : Not grammatically okay, it is, as Kim said, an import from another language - and one in this case to be deplored in writing!
1 hr
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

Structural translation of another language to English

I have found this quite amusing, but it is true. Non-natives who have learnt English as a foreign language tend to say this more often. I think what happens here is that they think the sentence in their native language first and then translate it to English with the original structure intact.

"This is better, no?", "This is better, isn't it?" is the way you would structure the sentence in Arabic, Urdu or in many of the Indian languages. In contrast, native speakers would say "Is this better?" or "Isn't this better?".
Peer comment(s):
agree Nizamettin Yigit : this is better, right? is also another member of this family...:)
1 hr
Yes :-))
Something went wrong...
7 hrs
English term (edited): no?

grammatically wrong but....

It´s grammatically wrong in writeen English,however,you could use "no"in very informal and spoken English
Reference:

own experience

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