# a simple "no" as tag question



## Encolpius

Good morning ladies & getntelem, I wonder if you can use a simple "no" nohting mor as tag question in different languages. I have checked some dictionaries and found out it is quite common in Romance langauges. How about other languages. There has been a similar thread about tag questions here, but I am interested only in a simple no. I have the feeling it is quite a *colloquial & expressive *tag question but so much the better. Here go some example I have found in Oxford dictionaries or known.
*Hungarian*:  Megyünk, nem? (Are we going, no?)
*Czech*: Jedeme, ne? (the same)
*Spanish*: Está mejor, no? 
*French*: C'est difficile, non? 
*Italian*: Lo farai, no? 
*German*: Du gehst doch jetzt noch *nicht*, nein?
(The black sheep of the list they use no-no)
Thanks for your cooperation and have a productive day
Encolpius from Prague


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## Olaszinhok

Encolpius said:


> *Italian*: Lo farai, no?


In my opinion, it's much more common: *lo farai, non è vero? (vero?)* With the same meaning as in your example.


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## gato radioso

As far as Spanish is concerned, your input is perfectly natural, although we sometimes replace it with "¿verdad?"

_El viaje tarda tres horas ¿no?
El viaje tarda tres horas ¿verdad?_

I guess that in a written context we´d tend to use more elaborated structures, but in spoken language, especially in colloquial contexts, when the concrete situation can explain many things by itself, the shortest the better.


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## Zec

Simple no as a tag question is a stereotypical feature of the Zagreb dialect, e.g. the _very_ stereotypical _Kužiš, ne?_ 'You get it, no?' (unfortunately, I don't feel confident inventing a less stereotypical example). In standard Croatian the tag question is _zar ne_, with an emphatic particle.


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## Penyafort

The three common possibilities in *Catalan*: no, yes, truth.

*no *- Vindràs demà, no? ('You'll come tomorrow, no?')​*oi *[Catalan cognate of French oui and Occitan oc; from Latin hoc] - Vindràs demà, oi? ('You'll come tomorrow, yes?')​*veritat *- Vindràs demà, veritat? ('You'll come tomorrow, truth?) [This one is more common among Valencians]​


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## merquiades

It sounds a bit foreign to add _no?_ to the end of a sentence to make a question in English.   It's usually done with _right? _sometimes _eh?   
You're coming, right?  The trip lasts 2 hours, right?_


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## Awwal12

In Russian "идём, нет?" (lit. "we're going, no?") works as well. It isn't as inquisitive as the usual question tags, and is more soft and indifferent than "are we going or not".


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## Penyafort

merquiades said:


> It sounds a bit foreign to add _no?_ to the end of a sentence to make a question in English.   It's usually done with _right? _sometimes _eh?
> You're coming, right?  The trip lasts 2 hours, right?_



I can assure you that many British and American expats in Spain end up adopting that _no? _


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## merquiades

Penyafort said:


> I can assure you that many British and American expats in Spain end up adopting that _no? _


I do not doubt this.  It's very convenient.


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## Red Arrow

This is sometimes used in Dutch:
_"Dat was de bedoeling, nee?"_
=> This implies that you think that the person you are speaking to disagrees.

The modal particle "toch" is more common:
_"Dat was toch de bedoeling?"
"Dat was de bedoeling, toch?"_
=> You are asking if they agree, without guessing what their response will be.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

In French, everything is q-tagged "..., n'est-ce pas?"


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## apmoy70

Greek:

*«Θα πάμε, ή όχι;»* [θa ˈpa.me i ˈɔ.çi?] --> _Shall we ɡo, or not?_
Sometimes the adverb *«μήπως»* [ˈmi.pɔs] precedes «όχι» as emphasis: *«θα πάμε, ή μήπως όχι;»* --> _Shall we go, or perhaps not?_


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## merquiades

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> In French, everything is q-tagged "..., n'est-ce pas?"


Definitely but they also use a lot of "non?" and "oui?"


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## Frieder

Encolpius said:


> *German*: Du gehst doch jetzt noch *nicht*, nein?


... doesn't sound very idiomatic. In these cases we prefer the tag question " ,oder?"

", nein?" as a tag question does not exist in German (only in inapt translations maybe).


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## Encolpius

I still trust Duden more.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

merquiades said:


> Definitely but they also use a lot of "non?" and "oui?"



I'd say "..., non?" is more common than "..., oui?" as a tag-Q, but I'm not a FR native.


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## Dymn

Encolpius said:


> I have checked some dictionaries and found out it is quite common in Romance langauges.


Not my language but in *Portuguese *I don't think "_não_?" as a question tag is a thing really. You would use "_não é_?" (or its short form "_né_?"), as well as echoing the verb in the negative ("_fala português, não fala?_"), or "_certo_?" (true?), or in Portugal "_pois não?_" with sentences that are negative.

In *German *I find "_oder?_" or "_ne?_" /nə/ to be the most common.


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## Sobakus

Russian has *нет *as well as *не*. The former may demand a more definite answer, and is preferred in rhetorical questions (_ты дурак, нет?_ "are you an idiot or what?") the latter is often used as a politeness marker to reduce insistence with imperatives, especially in 1p plural: _идём, не?_ "shall we go?". Thus _ты дурак, не? _would be a milder "are you an idiot by chance?". It's also very colloquial.

Latin has a rich array of various discourse particles:

There's a choice parallel to Russian: _*an nōn*_ "or not?" is quite insistent, demanding an answer or action, while _*nōn* _is a more tentative/inquisitive/polite option. Come to think of it, though, I don't think I've ever met or used the latter with imperatives. I'd be more inclined to use a simple _*an?*_ (like German _oder?) _as a backchannel to indicate I'm waiting for an answer.
There's also _*necne?*_, which isn't used as a tag at all but demands an articulate answer.
Another option in Latin is sticking the enclitic _*-ne*_ to the most important word, typically the verb, which is then fronted: _ambulāmusne?_ "so are we going?". It's quite emphatic and used in topic switches etc. In fact, despite resembling a negative and often being misrepresented as such, from the looks of it it's an emphatic particle in origin.
Yet another common particle is _*quīn*_ "why don't <you> just?": _quid stās, lapis? quīn accipis?_ "don't stand there like a dummy! are you taking it or not?"; _quīn ūnō verbō dīc _"just say it in a word!".
Then there's _*num*_, which is normally explained as expecting a negative answer, and this is true, but only to an extent - it's virtually equivalent to the German _etwa._
Finally one can introduce a question with _*ecquid*_ "you do, don't you?" and _*numquid*_ "you don't, do you?" (also *ec*_*quis?*_ for "is anybody?" etc). These are very emphatic indeed, and could be softened by _forte_ "perchance", although I've never actually encountered this.
Actually I just have, in Cicero: _percontantibus nōbīs ecquid forte Rōma novī_ "when I asked if there happened to be any news from Rome", literally "if Rome [had produced] anything new" showcasing the famed Roman brevity - or it could be _Rōmā_ "from Rome".


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## Sobakus

I just had to forget the most common Latin tag, the one that came to mind first: _*nōnne*_, which is the usual negative _nōn_ + the emphatic _-ne_ mentioned above. It's very much like the English _isn't it,_ German _nich wahr?,_ Italian _vero?_, Spanish _¿verdad?, _Portuguese _não é?._ Like (I think) all of these and unlike Russian _не(т)_, it can't be used with imperative main clauses (the so-called 'anchors') because it makes a sort of a statement, so not in OP's example "shall we go?". It does work fine with declarative, interrogative and exclamative ones:
_nōndum proficīscimur, nōnne? _"we aren't departing yet, are we?" (asked in surprise or to make sure that we don't).​_difficile est, nōnne?(!)_ "it's difficult, isn't it?"​


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## TheCrociato91

Encolpius said:


> *Italian*: Lo farai, no?


Some alternative question tags (possibly with slightly different nuances depending on the context):_ vero?_, _giusto?_, _eh?_, _neh?_


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## Conchita57

merquiades said:


> Definitely but they also use a lot of "non?" and "oui?"



Other question tags used in French are:

- ou pas ?
- c'est ça ?
- ou non ?
- si ?
or, more informally:
- pas vrai ?
- hein ?


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## Conchita57

gato radioso said:


> As far as Spanish is concerned, your input is perfectly natural, although we sometimes replace it with "¿verdad?"
> 
> _El viaje tarda tres horas ¿no?
> El viaje tarda tres horas ¿verdad?_
> 
> I guess that in a written context we´d tend to use more elaborated structures, but in spoken language, especially in colloquial contexts, when the concrete situation can explain many things by itself, the shortest the better.



Also:
- ¿a que sí?/¿a que no?
- ¿verdad que sí?/¿verdad que no?
- ¿no crees?
- ¿no es así?/¿no es cierto? (more formal)


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## Encolpius

Frieder said:


> ... doesn't sound very idiomatic. In these cases we prefer the tag question " ,oder?"
> ", nein?" as a tag question does not exist in German (only in inapt translations maybe).



I must confess I had problems with nein, too, but the colloquial word is "ne", maybe regional. I hear ne in films a lot.


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## Conchita57

Dymn said:


> Not my language but in *Portuguese *I don't think "_não_?" as a question tag is a thing really. You would use "_não é_?" (or its short form "_né_?"), as well as echoing the verb in the negative ("_fala português, não fala?_"), or "_certo_?" (true?), or in Portugal "_pois não?_" with sentences that are negative.
> 
> In *German *I find "_oder?_" or "_ne?_" /nə/ to be the most common.


In Bavaria, they use the term "gell?" (pronounced "kel") a lot.


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## Frieder

Encolpius said:


> I must confess I had problems with nein, too, but the colloquial word is "ne", maybe regional. I hear ne in films a lot.


But _"_ne?" is not "nein?". It is "nicht?" and a shortened form of "nicht wahr?".


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## Encolpius

Frieder said:


> But _"_ne?" is not "nein?". It is "nicht?" and a shortened form of "nicht wahr?".



I have thought ne is nein. From time to time I even learn something here in WR.


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## Frieder

_Nee_ [ne:] is "nein", _ne_ [nə] is "nicht"


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## Encolpius

Hello Frider, it's getting too complicated and very interesting now. I have really thought nee and ne is the same.
So Duden says: 
1. ne, nee (umgangssprachlich): *nein* 
2. ne [nə] Fragepartikel, ugs.: *nicht (wahr)*
The funny thing seems to be you can pronounce ne in two dfferent ways. 
Do you agree? 
I think am going to open a thread in the German forum.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Encolpius said:


> Hello Frider, it's getting too complicated and very interesting now. I have really thought nee and ne is the same.
> So Duden says:
> 1. ne, nee (umgangssprachlich): *nein*
> 2. ne [nə] Fragepartikel, ugs.: *nicht (wahr)*
> The funny thing seems to be you can pronounce ne in two dfferent ways.
> Do you agree?
> I think am going to open a thread in the German forum.



Viel Glück!


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## Olaszinhok

Frieder said:


> _Nee_ [ne


Also in some northern Italian regions _neh_ is used as a question tag, particularly in Piedmont and Lombardy,_ lo fai, neh?  _However, it sounds dialectal to me.

neh in Vocabolario - Treccani


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## Perseas

Olaszinhok said:


> Also in some northern Italian regions _neh_ is used as a question tag, particularly in Piedmont and Lombardy,_ lo fai, neh?  _


"neh" can be used also in Greek as a question tag but with different meaning. It means "yes".


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## Olaszinhok

Perseas said:


> "neh" can be used also in Greek as a question tag but with different meaning. It means "yes


Yeah, that's a very renowned Greek feature.


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