In English, there is question tag, e.g. "Your sister is beautiful, isn't she?"
Can we form similar sentence in Russian..?
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In English, there is question tag, e.g. "Your sister is beautiful, isn't she?"
Can we form similar sentence in Russian..?
Сестра у тебя красивая, не так ли?Quote:
Originally Posted by sps
«Не так ли» can be replaced with «не правда ли».
In common speech these tags are very rare. It can be often seen in books though. Just raise your pitch at the end of a sentence and it'll be a question. Even if it was a statement. :) Tone is important in Russian, so you have to pay attention to it when listening.
More common tags, I think, are just ..., да? or ..., правда?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramil
Sometimes I can say something like "Твоя сестра красивая, да?"
Frankly speaking, it is exasperating to read translated books where all these "isn't it", "do you", "haven't they" and so on are rendered as "не так ли" all the time. The reason is quite simple: English enjoys these various tags when Russian often avoids them. There is no variety of grammatical tags that sound natural and this all-the-time favourite "не так ли" being pushed by poor translators really drives reader wild. To my opinion, they should omit them or sometimes use "да" or "нет" tags.
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман
"Не так ли" and "не правда ли" are veeeeeery bookish.
[quote=Оля]+1Quote:
Originally Posted by "Боб Уайтман":2zr4ns4l
"Не так ли" and "не правда ли" are veeeeeery bookish.[/quote:2zr4ns4l] Okay, now I understand. Thanks to all for your help..!
Is "что ли?" a question tag?
I'd translate "что ли?" as "or what? / or something?"Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
For example:
- Ты совсем, что ли?? / Are you nuts or something??