What the...

[TIPATTON]

Bonjour,

À la phrase :Tu habites à Berlin, n'est-ce pas ? j'ai répondu "you live in Berlin, isn't it ?", il me l'a compte faux, or le pas est une négation, qui est préservée dans le "isn't", il préfère "right"...
Je ne trouve pas ça très exact, d'autant que j'aurais pu dire "don't you?" que ça aurait été encore incorrect...

si quelqu'un peut m'expliquer...
merci beaucoup

[Basler Biker]

"right?" is correct, yet very conversational, and you can use it in so many cases,
but maybe not good enough to show that you can have these alternatives.

maybe "You live in Berlin, don't you? is better... because you "do live"

In French, the phrase "Tu habites à Berlin, n'est-ce pas ?" translates to "You live in Berlin, don't you?" because it's a confirmation question.

Here's why the other options don't work as well:

• "Aren't you?": This would be used if you were asking about a person’s state or condition, like "Aren't you feeling well?" or "Aren't you coming?" It doesn't work in this case because "habites" (live) refers to a location, not a state of being.

• "Isn't it?": This would be used for singular objects or situations that are "it," like "The weather is nice, isn't it?" Since "tu" refers to a person (you), the structure doesn't match.

In English, when confirming something like someone's location, we typically use "don't you?" for statements that refer to actions or conditions like living somewhere.

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To make one of the alternatives ("aren't you?" or "isn't it?") work as the best answer, we would need to adjust the structure of the sentence. Here’s how:

1. "Aren't you?" would be the best fit if you rephrase the sentence to focus on the person’s state or identity:

   • "You're living in Berlin, aren't you?"
   • Here, “aren’t you?” works because you're emphasizing the person's action (living in Berlin) and confirming it.

2. "Isn't it?" would be the best fit if you were referring to something singular, like "Berlin" or the act of living there, as an abstract concept:

   • "Berlin is a great city, isn't it?"

   • This uses "isn't it?" because the sentence is now focusing on the city (Berlin), not the person.

So, if you're trying to make one of the alternatives fit naturally, these adjusted sentences would work best!

[TIPATTON]

okay, thank you very much, I didn't think sentence structure was so important, it's something I just discovered thanks to you, thank you again, have a good day/evening.

[Poca]

Bonjour ,
Pour ta phrase "You live in Berlin, … ?", le bon tag est "don’t you?" parce que le verbe est "live" (présent simple), et on utilise l’auxiliaire do.
"Isn’t it?" est incorrect car "is" correspond au verbe "to be" avec "it" comme sujet, ce qui ne convient pas ici.

Le mot "right?" est possible aussi, car c'est une façon informelle et acceptable de demander une confirmation, mais ce n’est pas un vrai question tag.

[HAPPYGUY]

Bonjour,
Un britannique dira "don't you?" (n'est-ce pas?) grammaticalement exact.
Un américain dira "right?" (exact?) c'est plus informel, plus direct, plus court
Ce que j'ai appris avec DUOLINGO, parce qu'en tant qu'européen je suis plus proche de l'anglais britannique que de l'anglais américain, c'est qu'il faut s'adapter à l'américain, que DUOLINGO pratique exclusivement.

Pareil pour l'accent, il est typiquement américain, exemple "matter" prononcé "mader", "waiter" prononcé "waider" c'est assez perturbant au début pour une oreille française en tout cas

[Shazia]

I might be mistaken in my assertion but I would like to chime in and say that "isn't it" or more precisely "innit" reportedly functions as an all-purpose negative question tag in some British dialects, irrespective of person, number, or verb.

Examples:
1) Dolphins are a type of mammal, innit?
2) You were cleaning your room, innit?

[HAPPYGUY]

Does DUOLINGO know "innit?" and accept it as a right answer?

[MoniqueMaRie]

Does DUOLINGO know "innit?" and accept it as a right answer?

I bet not.

[HAPPYGUY]

Sooooo the best answer and eventually the one accepted by DUOLINGO is: "You live in Berlin, right?"
DUOLINGO is harsh