Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: had/would better

I was doing an exercise and I came across the following partial sentence:
"You'd better wait for Bill, ... you?"
Guess what?
The expected answer was "wouldn't".
Am I totally wrong or should it be "hadn't"?
Kiuhnm

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:458472cd$0$4251$4faf...@reader1.news.tin.it...
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La prima 'd' sta per would, è un condizionale.
O non ho capito la tua domanda, secondo te quella frase che significa?
ciao, Janis 

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Se la frase significa "Faresti meglio ad aspettare Bill, no?" mi sembra 
abbia ragione Kiuhnm. cosa centra "would"...? 

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that's what I would think.  If the sentence is "You had better wait for
Bill", then the tag question is "hadn't you?", not "wouldn't you?"  but
to tell you the truth, I have never heard the expression "had better"
followed by a tag question.  Have you?  It sounds a little weird to say
"You'd better wait for Bill.  Hadn't you?"
Perhaps there is a rule that says that when the verb "had" is part of
the "had better" phrase, then the tag question is "would"..  Maybe
that's what Janis was talking about.  Comunque ho sempre sottolineato
il fatto che non sono esperta in grammatica inglese, quindi consiglio a
Kiuhnm di aspettare pareri piu' autorevoli.  
bye
ari

 Kiuhnm di aspettare pareri piu' autorevoli.  
I've just found this:
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm
Search for "had better".
Kiuhnm

 wrote in message
news:45848418$0$4257$4faf...@reader1.news.tin.it...
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I agree with Ari (and your link) that it's definitely not "wouldn't".
"You'd (You had) better wait for Bill" has the force of an imperative, so
adding any subsequent phrase makes no sense.
In the phrase were "You'd wait for Bill, wouldn't you?", "You'd" stands for
"You would". Here there is no imperative.
I think that whoever made up this example is a little confused, and probably
not a native speaker.
Joe from Massachusetts

 In the phrase were "You'd wait for Bill, wouldn't you?",
If, not In
Joe from Massachusetts

 abbia ragione Kiuhnm. cosa centra "would"...?
Mi ero persa per strada il better!
ciao, Janis 

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'Hadn't' va bene, 'wouldn't' non va bene, ma direi 'shouldn't.' 

 'Hadn't' va bene, 'wouldn't' non va bene, ma direi 'shouldn't.' 
Can we still consider it a tag question? The exercise was about tag 
questions.
Kiuhnm

 questions.
Umm, okay... you're It? 

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May I ask you where that exercise comes from?  
ari

 Umm, okay... you're It? 
?
Kiuhnm

 May I ask you where that exercise comes from?  
It's an exercise my former English teacher gave me an aeon ago.
Kiuhnm

 ?
It's from a game called 'tag'.

 Joe from Massachusetts
I agree that it's wrong but couldn't it be they got confused with the
imperative that has "will you" as a question tag? If it's a milder
imperative maybe they thought a milder question tag would do.... (this
is the teacher speaking, always trying to interpret errors :-) ) Oh,
ok, maybe they simply don't know what the  'd stands for in " 'd
better" but I guess that's kind of common among mother-tongue speakers
too, isn't it? (take for example the interpretation of  'd in third
conditionals transformed into "would have" )
Cheerio
Claudia

 It's from a game called 'tag'.
Penso che sia quello che da noi si chiama "Ce l'hai".
-- 
Laz - [ 
http://www.dimensionedelta.net
 ]
[ 
http://www.josswhedon.it
 | 
http://www.miltoncaniff.net
 ]
"And nobody / In all of Oz / No wizard that there is or was / Is ever 
gonna bring me down!" 

 Penso che sia quello che da noi si chiama "Ce l'hai".
Never heard of it...
Kiuhnm

 Never heard of it...
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ce_l'hai
Corrisponde proprio a tag.


 wrote in message
news:1166438020.0...@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com...
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Then I guess you don't find anything strange about "You'd better kill him,
hadn't you?".  Maybe we should create a new class, the "inoffensive
imperative tag", for people who don't want to appear imperious, even when
faced with life-threatening situations.
The "will you" tag is one of those which makes no sense to me, and is not in
my bag of tricks.
Rather than be circuitous with "Shut up, will you?", I would much prefer a
simple and emphatic "Will you shut up?".
And I fail to make any sense of "Don't hit me, will you?". Does it mean I
want to be hit, or not?
Joe from Massachusetts

 want to be hit, or not?
ROTFL!  (can't stop to say any more)
Claudia

 better" 
Yes, I really think that was the case here.
bye
ari

 wrote in message
news:1166543339....@48g2000cwx.googlegroups.com...
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On second thought, I have to take back some of what I said. I can envisage a
situation where a nude man, bound to a bed, and being threatened by a buxom,
whip-wielding, leather-clad dominatrix might say "Don't hit me, will you?!".
Joe from Massachusetts
Joe from Massachusetts