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Moira in Cambridge.
Professional TeacherI always say, "You have (got) a car, haven't you?" and never "You have (got) a car, don't you?"
How many folks out there use the tag, "don't you" in THAT situation? I'm hearing it a lot lately. There IS a logic to it as the question could be HAVE you a car? HAVE you got a car? Or DO/DON'T you have a car?
Therefor the auxiliary DO/DON'T seems to have a claim to be in the tag!
I'd like to know other English native-speaker thoughts on this. Please.
Aug 11, 2022 10:24 AM
Answers · 2
Hey Moira, I think you've touched on a UK/USA difference here. As a Canadian, I never, ever say "have" in question tags after "have" when it's indicating possession. I always use "do" like so:
You have a car, don't you?
And formally,
You have a vehicle, do you not?
When "have" is functioning as an auxiliary, such as in the present perfect, I would use "have" in the question tag:
You've seen that movie, haven't you?
August 11, 2022
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Moira in Cambridge.
Language Skills
English, Kyrgyz, Other, Portuguese, Slovenian, Ukrainian
Learning Language
Kyrgyz, Other, Portuguese, Slovenian, Ukrainian
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