Tag questions and loan words
Yanko,
Happy Friday-nearly the weekend!!
Today I want to highlight a grammar point called ‘tag questions’. Here is an example of a tag question that you used in your last blog
‘Here in Brazil the Friday 13th is another superstition, I think this is global, don’t I?’
Did you mean to ask the question about whether Friday 13th is a global bad luck day (which makes sense and I could answer ‘yes, it is’) or ask a kind of rhetorical question whether you think it’s a bad day or not?
The question that I think you wanted to write was:
‘Here in Brazil, Friday the 13th is another superstition, I think this is global isn’t it?
In question tags we usually use an auxiliary verb (have/was/will etc), ‘It was an interesting blog, wasn’t it?’
Do/does/did is used for the present and past simple, ‘Yanko studies English, doesn’t he?’
Normally, we use a negative question tag after positive sentences (1) and a positive tag after a negative sentence (2)
(1) Tanya will pass her exam, won’t she?
(2) You don’t live in a cottage, do you?
I was looking up some information on Portuguese as I wanted to see what loan words we have in English from your language Yanko (apart from ‘samba’!) Due to my internet connection, I couldn’t access any of the sites that came up after I googled so I thought that I would ask you to tell me some loan words instead. Can you write a few words from your language that are now used in English in your next blog? I know that the English language is a thief because it borrows so many words from other languages. It’s claimed, for example, that there are as many as 10,000 Spanish loan words alone.
I also didn’t realize that Portuguese is the fifth most popular language in the world and spoken by over 190 million native speakers in 8 independent countries. Macao, in China, is a former Portuguese commercial outpost, I’ve never been there but I wonder if the language is spoken there now or not. I have heard from friends that Portuguese cuisine has heavily influenced the region though.
Today, I'll leave you all with a photo that sends us all a very important message- TAKE LIFE EASY!!!!!
My pizza delivery just arrived-bye bye for today!
Trudi
Comments
Hi, Trudi! Your blog is very helpful. Sometimes you are allowing me to understand what I didn’t take into account, eg., the explanation about how to use do/does/did in the question tag. Thank you. The picture in your blog is enough expressive.
Hello Trudi! Speaking of English as a thief language:), this reminds of a word 'Patio', which is also a Spanish word in origin,is now very much in use these days. The photo which you leave us in the end with is relaxing to mind indeed. It's also true perhaps that we should take life easy:). Wishes, Naheed
Hi Trudi! I´ve heard there are some people in Macao who still speak Portuguese. Do you know Trudi that there is a project which has the goal to unify the language written in all the countries which has Portuguese as official language? It´s a heated debate here at the moment. Enjoy your pizza! :-) Ana Paula.
In Macao,the people speak Cantonese.
Hi, Trudi. Speaking about Russia I can tell you that we have the same superstition for the number "13" or devil's dozen. Some people believe in it, some people do not. It's common to believe that the most horrible day is Friday, the 13th. As for me, I do not believe in such things. I think that what has to happen it happens whenever you believe it or not and whatever day of the week. Most of the population of Russia live in the appartments, or block of flats. Though, more and more families get opportunity to buy their own house. There are a few reasons for my opinion why people live in appartments. The first is the economical: high selling price for individual house. The second is the climate: house maintaining in winter wich lasts since early november till the end of march is very difficult and expensive task. The temperature is falling down to 35-40 degrees below zero (C). So it's easier to build multi-storeyed houses to live in and not to worry whether you're going to freeze or not. Unless, I'd have prefered to live in house of mine rather, than in the appartments. Bye-bye.
Hi everybody! I only would like to attract your attention to the new information on BBC site. People who want to be a blogger have to look at the heading “Be our blogger”. I remember some people nearly crying to be a next blogger. So go arhead!:)
Hi Trudi. I'm a new blogger since I discovered this wonderful site this morning. I read with great interest all that you wrote. I wanted to tell you that all the superstitions you mentioned are the same as in my country. Hope you can sleep more. Thank you for all. Bye bye, Cris
Hi Trudi, Thank you for your message, "Take Life Easy", and the funny photo. It'll always stick into my mind I believe whenever I see the message anywhere. In fact this message is part of my resolution for the new (Iranian) year which has started only on March the 20th. So let me say HAPPY NOWROOZ to Pari and my all other Iranian blogmates. Though, as an Iranian Arab, I do not celebrate Nowrooz as seriously as my non-Arab countrywomen, I like it very much, especially the going outs and the nice whether and all the beautiful changes in nature. Here in Ahwaz, early spring, i.e., end of March to April is the best of time and plenty of visitors are visiting our area.My next resolution for this year is to improve my English, in fact I have called it YEAR OF ENGLISH. I try to adhere to both of these pledges, Wish me Luck... Enjoy your spring and Good Luck everybody...
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