{"id":7056,"date":"2021-10-21T19:02:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T19:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=7056"},"modified":"2021-10-21T19:02:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T19:02:48","slug":"yes-or-no-tag-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/yes-or-no-tag-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes or NO \u2013 tag questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This time, I am going to talk about tag questions (\u4ed8\u52a0\u7591\u554f\u6587 fuka gimonbun).\u00a0 I know that \u00a0these are confusing to Japanese students learning English, and I bet the Japanese learners must be sharing the same confusion (\u6df7\u4e71 konran).<\/p>\n<p>So what is a tag question in English?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>You didn\u2019t go to see the movie last night, did you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you did not go to see the movie (\u6620\u753b eiga), what would you answer?\u00a0 You may say, \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t.\u201d And if you did go, you may say \u201cYes, I did.\u201d Well, at least they are grammatically (\u6587\u6cd5\u7684\u306b bunpo tekini) correct (\u6b63\u3057\u3044t adashii) answers. I asked my son whose native language is English \u2013 what would you answer if you did go to see the movie?\u00a0 His answer was, \u201cActually, I did.\u201d So let\u2019s talk about that later.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7057\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7057\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7057\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-350x263.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7057\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/erikawittlieb-427626\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=534103\">ErikaWittlieb<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=534103\">Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>I used to ask Japanese students a tag question during their ESL program in the US.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t go to see the movie last night, did you?\u00a0 If they did not go to see the movie last night, they were most likely to (\u6700\u3082\u301c\u3057\u305d\u3046 mottomo shisou) say,<\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Just \u201cyes\u201d and nothing else.\u00a0 As I knew that the Japanese students usually had a problem with a tag question, I always had to ask to confirm (\u78ba\u8a8d\u3059\u308b kakuninsuru). \u201cSo you did go to see the movie? \u201c\u00a0 And the students got panicked a bit (\u614c\u3066\u308b awateru) and said, \u201cNo, no, we didn\u2019t go to see the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My English teacher told me that the Americans focused on \u201cme.\u201d \u00a0So if you did go to see the movie, you answer with \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d if you did not go to see the movie regardless of the style of questions.\u00a0 This made it much easier to learn how to answer tag questions than the grammatical explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Now let\u2019s ask the same question in Japanese.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>\u6628\u65e5\u3001\u6620\u753b\u3092\u898b\u306b\u884c\u304d\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f\u306d\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If they did <strong>not go to see the movie<\/strong>, the Japanese would say <strong>\u306f\u3044<\/strong>\u3001\u898b\u306b\u884c\u304d\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f\u3002 We barely say \u3044\u3044\u3048\u3001\u898b\u306b\u884c\u304d\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n<p>So what if we <strong>did go to see the movie<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u3044\u3044\u3048<\/strong>\u3001\u898b\u306b\u884c\u304d\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n<p>I got very confused in the polite form!\u00a0\u00a0 So here are the same questions and answers in colloquial form.<\/p>\n<p>You did not go to see the movie, did you? \u2013 I did not go to see the movie.<\/p>\n<p>\u6628\u65e5\u3001\u6620\u753b\u898b\u306b\u884c\u304b\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3088\u306d\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u3046\u3093<\/strong>\u3001\u884c\u304b\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3088\u3002(Yeah, I didn\u2019t go.)<\/p>\n<p>You <strong>did go<\/strong> to see the movie.<\/p>\n<p>\u6628\u65e5\u3001\u6620\u753b\u898b\u306b\u884c\u304b\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3088\u306d\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u3048\u3063\uff1f<\/strong> \u884c\u3063\u305f\u3088\u3002<\/p>\n<p>The most natural answer I came up with instinctively (\u76f4\u611f\u7684\u306b chokkantekini). Here, I do not answer with yes or no.\u00a0 I just say \u3048\u3063\uff1f which is like \u201chuh?\u201d\u00a0 and I answer affirmatively (\u80af\u5b9a\u7684\u306b kouteitekini).\u00a0 It is just like my son answering \u201cActually, I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here is a YouTube video I found about tag questions between a Japanese comedian and an American who is fluent in Japanese. \u00a0You can find many videos about tag questions by searching \u5426\u5b9a\u7591\u554f\u6587 and \u4ed8\u52a0\u7591\u554f\u6587, which proves that Japanese English learners are struggling with them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u5426\u5b9a\u7591\u554f\u6587\u3078\u306e\u8fd4\u7b54\u3010Q&amp;A\u3011\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IEAapqsPZxs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the past, I asked American English native speakers the same question in English many times as I was interested in learning how they, who are not linguistics students or an ESL teacher, would answer. Nobody managed to answer with just yes or no.\u00a0 As in the above video, they all added a sentence to make their answer clear.\u00a0 You can do the same in Japanese.\u00a0 In conversation, you can answer either \u201c\u306f\u3044\u201d or \u201c\u3044\u3044\u3048\u201d but make sure you add additional information \u2013 \u201c\u884c\u304d\u307e\u3057\u305f\u201d or \u201d\u884c\u304d\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f\u201d.\u00a0 Just be careful if you are taking a Japanese exam!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-350x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/upset-534103_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>This time, I am going to talk about tag questions (\u4ed8\u52a0\u7591\u554f\u6587 fuka gimonbun).\u00a0 I know that \u00a0these are confusing to Japanese students learning English, and I bet the Japanese learners must be sharing the same confusion (\u6df7\u4e71 konran). So what is a tag question in English? You didn\u2019t go to see the movie last night&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/yes-or-no-tag-questions\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":7057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,6,8],"tags":[550920,2241,550921,550919],"class_list":["post-7056","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-grammar","category-language","tag-confusing","tag-japanese","tag-negative-question","tag-tag-question"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7058,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7056\/revisions\/7058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}