About question tags

Question

He did nothing*.

Which is the correct question tag for the sentence above?

1. didn't he?

2. did he?

What is the effect of using nothing for negation?

Answer 1

He did nothing

Which is the correct question tag for the sentence above:

didn't he?

did he?

Hum, I think either one is possible. My interpretation of this is that if you said

He did nothing, did he?

it would mean that you think that I've said that he did nothing and you want me to confirm that. If you said

He did nothing, didn't he.

it would mean that you assert that he did nothing and you expect me to confirm that.

What is the effect of using nothing for negation?

My interpretation is that if you said

He didn't do anything.

it sounds more neutral (less emphatic) than if you said

He did nothing.

Answer 2

Wikipedia says:

English tag questions may contain a negation, but need not. When there is no special emphasis, the rule of thumb often applies that a positive sentence has a negative tag and vice versa:

• She is French, isn't she?
• She's not French, is she?

These are sometimes called "balanced tag questions". However, it has been estimated that in normal conversation, as many as 40%-50% of tags break this rule. "Unbalanced tag questions" (positive to positive or negative to negative) may be used for ironic or confrontational effects:

• Do listen, will you?
• Oh, I'm lazy, am I?
• Jack: I refuse to spend Sunday at your mother's house! Jill: Oh you do, do you? We'll see about that!
• Jack: I just won't go back! Jill: Oh you won't, won't you?

Patterns of negation can show regional variations. In North East Scotland, for example, positive to positive is used when no special effect is desired:

• This pizza's fine, is it? (standard English: This pizza's delicious, isn't it?)

Answer 3

To expand on the current answers,

"He didn't do anything, did he?" and

"He did nothing, didn't he?"

Mean exactly the same thing. The tag question asks for confirmation of the speakers belief that that he didn't do anything.

However,the phrase

"He did nothing, did he?"

Is a different type of tag question. It does not mean that the speakers opinion is that he did nothing. The speaker is in fact genuinely questioning the assertion that he did nothing.

for example:

"he rode a bike, did he?"

The speaker really wants to know if he rode a bike, and isn't sure of that fact.

"he rode a bike, didn't he?"

The speaker is rather confident that he did ride a bike, but is asking for confirmation.