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Question tags: "May have"



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
what does "look cross" mean? | "I'll admit" vs "I admit"
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Question tags: "May have" #1 (permalink) Fri Oct 06, 2006 18:52 pm   Question tags: "May have"
 

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
Tom
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Question tags: "May have" #2 (permalink) Fri Oct 06, 2006 20:07 pm   Question tags: "May have"
 

.
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. Wink

Amy
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Question tags: "May have" #3 (permalink) Fri Oct 06, 2006 20:18 pm   Question tags: "May have"
 

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. Sad

Tom
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Question tags: "May have" #4 (permalink) Fri Oct 06, 2006 20:34 pm   Question tags: "May have"
 

.
What book did you find them in, Tom?
.
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. Wink

Amy
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Question tags: "May have" #5 (permalink) Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:59 am   Question tags: "May have"
 

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
Pamela
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Question tags: "May have" #6 (permalink) Sat Oct 07, 2006 8:56 am   Question tags: "May have"
 

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
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Question tags: "May have" #7 (permalink) Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:42 am   Question tags: "May have"
 

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.
Mahesh9jai
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Question tags: "May have" #8 (permalink) Tue Sep 29, 2009 19:53 pm   Question tags: "May have"
 

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.
Cerberus™
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Question tags: "May have" #9 (permalink) Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:09 am   Question tags: "May have"
 

Ok...what about this

They have bread for breakfast.

The question tag would be. Don't they? or Haven't they?
Mahesh9jai
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Question tags: "May have" #10 (permalink) Wed Sep 30, 2009 13:16 pm   Question tags: "May have"
 

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.
Cerberus™
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what does "look cross" mean? | "I'll admit" vs "I admit"
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