Question tag for ought to

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harvest
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Question tag for ought to

Unread post by harvest »

I have a question and need opinion from anyone.

this is about question tag for ought to.

Bob ought to let me know about the accident,shouldnt he?
and
Nothing went wrong while I was out,Did it or Did they?

i would be very gratefull for opinion or explanation
Thanks :-)
wesofix
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Re: Question tag for ought to

Unread post by wesofix »

We do have the form 'oughtn't' - so this could be used as a tag where an opposite way tag is used.

We don't tend to use this form very often in modern English, possibly because it sounds a bit pretentious. Most grammars advance 'should' as an acceptable alternative.

I'm a bit confused by your example though. Does Bob know that there is going to be an accident? I think I'd change tense a little.

'Bob ought to have let me know about the accident, oughtn't he?'


'Nothing...' = not a thing = not a single thing...so the tag should be '...did it?'
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