Question Tags
पुष्टिवाचक प्रश्न (Question Tags)
English tacks a small mirrored question onto the end of a statement to seek agreement — Hindi does something similar with a single, unchanging tag like ना or है ना, without needing to rebuild anything from the sentence itself.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
The tag flips positive to negative and mirrors the auxiliary; Hindi just adds ना / है ना
You're coming, aren't you? / You aren't coming, are you? (the tag always flips the statement's polarity)
तुम आ रहे हो, है ना? / तुम नहीं आ रहे, है ना? (वही है ना जुड़ता है, चाहे वाक्य सकारात्मक हो या नकारात्मक)
Hindi adds a small fixed tag — ना, है ना, or क्या — to the end of a statement to invite agreement, and this same tag works regardless of whether the statement itself is positive or negative. English's tag is more mechanical and changes every time: it rebuilds a mini-question from the statement's own auxiliary verb (are, is, can, will) and always flips the polarity — a positive statement takes a negative tag (You're coming, aren't you?) and a negative one takes a positive tag (You aren't coming, are you?). Where Hindi reuses one all-purpose tag everywhere, English requires matching the tag's auxiliary and pronoun to the main clause each time.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| English | Pronunciation | Hindi |
|---|---|---|
| You're coming, aren't you? | yor KUM-ing arnt yoo | तुम आ रहे हो, है ना?tum ā rahe ho, hai nā? |
| She isn't here, is she? | shee IZ-int heer iz shee | वह यहाँ नहीं है, है ना?vah yahāñ nahīñ hai, hai nā? |
| You can swim, can't you? | yoo kan swim kant yoo | तुम्हें तैरना आता है, है ना?tumheñ tairnā ātā hai, hai nā? |