3

If a question tag were moved forward in a sentence, how would it be punctuated? And if the question tag were a parenthetical, would the sentence still be a question?

  1. There’s no point, is there, in our leaving the house today?

  2. There’s no point, is there, in our leaving the house today.

Thank you for your time!

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    Why would you want to do that?
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 9:36
  • 1
    (1) I'm not sure the concept of a parenthetical works in your examples, as the question tag makes a not insignificant change to the sense of the whole (it's not just a matter of the matrix being grammatical). (2) You can't argue that a polite request is involved here (contrast "Could you shut the window please, Tim.") so the interrogative form mandates a question mark. I assume you're thinking of two scenarios: a genuine question, and a rhetorical one. Both are acceptable, but both require the question mark according to all I've read. You'd need a speech tag (eg asserted Jo) to disambiguate.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 10:51
  • 1
    Under/Above the Water (Tanith Lee, 2010): But it's no good, is it, to go on loving somebody dead? The "tag question" is effectively an optional / parenthetical element, and they're normally set off by commas
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 10:51
  • So it’s not really a parenthetical, even though it’s set off by commas?
    – David Marlowe
    Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 17:33
  • I don't see why people are dumping on this question. To me it's perfectly valid. And we've all seen, haven't we, instances of question tags moved forward in a sentence? Whether we've noticed them or not?
    – Robusto
    Commented Nov 1, 2020 at 14:52

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.