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Tag question
Message de canax posté le 24-11-2008 à 18:20:36 (S | E | F)
Hello everybody
I need your help please.What is the tag for "may"?
eg: It may rain this evening,.............?
Message de canax posté le 24-11-2008 à 18:20:36 (S | E | F)
Hello everybody
I need your help please.What is the tag for "may"?
eg: It may rain this evening,.............?
Réponse: Tag question de gylles, postée le 25-11-2008 à 19:59:56 (S | E)
I really seldom saw a question tag in the negative form with this auxiliary verb, but it should be "not may?" or won't it?
Réponse: Tag question de betyboop, postée le 25-11-2008 à 20:40:17 (S | E)
Hello evrybody!
For the quetion about may. Well i say that it is might ex. it might rain (might is not sure). well i hope that i was able to help.
Wishing you all a good evaning
Réponse: Tag question de TravisKidd, postée le 25-11-2008 à 21:37:30 (S | E)
I think "may", expressing an intermediate probability, is incompatible with a question tag. Question tags express doubt, but there is no doubt associated with "may" (as there is with "might").
The closest phrase that would work here is "..., don't you think?".
Réponse: Tag question de jeany, postée le 26-11-2008 à 12:08:28 (S | E)
Hi!
According to me, I think the right question tag is "isn't it?". Just like when you want to have the point of view of somebody else.
I hope my English is not too bad so...
Réponse: Tag question de canax, postée le 26-11-2008 à 15:45:08 (S | E)
hi!
In this statement,"may" expresses a future possibility.It's just like"perhaps
it will rain this evening".So the tag question could be:it may rain this
evening,won't it?
But I'm not sure.Therefor I aked this question.It seems that the opinions are very different.What do native speakers think?
Réponse: Tag question de TravisKidd, postée le 26-11-2008 à 16:50:54 (S | E)
I'm a native speaker.
You also wouldn't use a question tag with "maybe" or "perhaps".
Réponse: Tag question de canax, postée le 28-11-2008 à 08:21:21 (S | E)
hello
TravisKidd said that the question tags express a doubt.But I learnt that
a question tag is also used to seek for agreement.So there's no doubt in
one's mind when we ask it,is there?
Réponse: Tag question de intrepid34, postée le 28-11-2008 à 08:29:01 (S | E)
Good morning!
This is so franglais. As a native speaker you wouldn't find yourself in this situation.
If you have an exercise at school that requires a tag for this statement, then Travis Kid is correct with - "don't you think?" or "What do you think?" And if your teacher is adamant that you have to reply with a modal akin to "may" then use - mightn't it? But really this sort of sentence doesn't really exist.
Best of luck
Intrepid
Réponse: Tag question de canax, postée le 28-11-2008 à 08:38:05 (S | E)
Good morning
Thanks a lot for your help.
Réponse: Tag question de TravisKidd, postée le 28-11-2008 à 09:05:08 (S | E)
It is hard to agree or disagree with a "may" statement, because there is no true negation of such a statement.
What would it mean to say that "It may rain" is false? What would that imply about, say, "It will rain" or "It might rain"?
When I talk about "doubt", I mean that something is "almost but not quite" certain. With "may" there is no "almost certain". (On the other hand "might" implies "almost certainly not".)
