Sentence feels wrong when I end it with "hadn't you"

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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TheCommoner
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Sentence feels wrong when I end it with "hadn't you"

Post by TheCommoner »

Hey everyone,

I just wrote this sentence in a WhatsApp message: "You still had to take the train for a station, hadn't you?"

And while the dark reminiscence of my grammar lessons assure me "hadn't you" is the correct way of ending this
question, it feels wrong. I want to say "didn't you". Funnily enough, if I changed it to "had you not", it would
have felt better.

Is my language feel wrong? Or my recollection of English classes?
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Alan
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Re: Sentence feels wrong when I end it with "hadn't you"

Post by Alan »

It is correct but dated. Nowadays "didn't you?" would be more idiomatic here.
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