Question tags: "May have"

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please use the question tags against the following sentences?

1- She may not have read it,--------------?
2- She mightn't possibly have seen him,------------?

Regards

Tom

[Yankee]

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What would you like to achieve with a tag, Tom?

I don't like your second sentence very much. I'd never use mightn't (AmE) and the placement of the word possibly is the final ruination of that sentence, in my opinion. Why did you want to use the word possibly at all?

Maybe Alan will address the usage of mightn't in BE. ;)

Amy
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Tom]

Amy, in fact, the other day I was doing an exercise of question tags from a book and could not do these two. There was no answer key. :(

Tom

[Yankee]

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What book did you find them in, Tom?
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To be honest, I doubt I'd be likely to put a tag on either of these sentences.

Saying "may she?" at the end of sentence 1 doesn't sound normal to me.

And since I have a strong aversion to sentence 2, it makes no sense to contemplate a possible tag question. ;)

Amy
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Pamela]

Well, Tom, when I read your question, the first sentence with "may she?" sounded strange to me and to the second I had no clue :wink:

[Yankee]

Hi Pamela

My impression is that Tom's sentences come from a grammar book in which the writers focused too much on grammar rules and too little on meaning and realistic usage.
This is one of my pet peeves. Some grammar books are OK, but too many are horrendous.

Amy
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Mahesh9jai]

Add question tag for the following.

1 - Let'us eat.

If your answer is 'shall we?' then wouldnt it contradict the pattern of it? This statment is positive. Hence, it sould be negative, isn't it?
Please clarify this.

[Cerberus™]

I agree, "shall we not?" is perhaps better. Then again, I'd not use any question tag at all here: it is rather a command or exhortation than a question; and "shall we not?" is awkward.

[Mahesh9jai]

Ok...what about this

They have bread for breakfast.

The question tag would be. Don't they? or Haven't they?

[Cerberus™]

Don't they: "have" is not used as an auxiliary verb here, nor is it used in a possessive sense; that's why it shouldn't be repeated in the tag.