Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Appendix: North American English grammar | 885

---

A: So uh what do you think you’ll do for your twenty-first birthday? Are you

gonna go to a party or anything? 

B: No. Yeah. Yeah. I might. I mean … Yeah. Maybe. 

(AmE) 

Affirmative copy tags occur in both varieties but are much rarer in AmE than in

BrE:

I think it’s really funny that they live together, 

I do. 

(BrE)

[talking about car mechanics]

A: That’s hard work.

B: It is.

A: I think they earn their money, I do.

(AmE)

The universal tag, right? is almost four times more frequent in AmE than in BrE:

You lived in Canada, though, 

right? 

(AmE)

I was hoping we could change this one, 

right? 

(BrE)

Tails are considerably less common in AmE than in BrE, but they do occur in

informal spoken AmE:

[talking of a US Senator; name disguised here]

He’s a scary guy, that Dan Boland. 

(AmE)

The last car we had was a Grand Prix which, … huh, never again! 

That was a

nightmare, 

that one. 

(AmE)