You did, did you?
Here's an excerpt from Stephen King's IT:
Mr. Keene laughed and took a licorice whip for himself. “You wondered about that, did you?"
My question: Am I right assuming that the "did you?" part is grammatically wrong, however, the mistake is common even among the native speakers?
Zoek tussen verschillende Engels docenten...
Antwoorden · 6
4
Hi Dimitriy,
No, it's certainly not a mistake! The "did you?" tag means, "is that right?" We use this commonly and naturally. Mr Keene really wanted to know.
If we use the usual tag-question pattern ("You wondered about that, didn't you?"), then it means Mr Keene already had an idea about the situation, and only wanted confirmation.
2
No it is perfectly correct, and is called a question tag.WE use it to get the other person to agree or disagree. For example You are hungry, aren't you?" answer "Yes,I am". " He is nice,isn't he?" Answer "Yes, he is". It asks the person to agree with what you just said.
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