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Formal French Expression
| Meaning | right? isn’t that so? | |
| Literally | is it not? | |
| Register | formal | |
| Pronunciation |  |
[nes pah] |
| IPA | [nɛs pa] | |
Usage notes: N’est-ce pas doesn’t mean much; it’s really just a tag question, something you tack onto the end of a statement in order to ask for confirmation. Unlike in English, where most tag questions repeat the verb from the sentence,* in French the verb doesn’t matter – n’est-ce pas is an all-purpose tag question found in formal and ironic speech.
Par exemple…
| C’est joli, n’est-ce pas ? | It’s pretty, isn’t it? | |
| Bonne idée, n’est-ce pas ? | (It’s a) Good idea, isn’t it? | |
| Tu dois travailler ce matin, n’est-ce pas ? | You have to work this morning, don’t you? | |
| Hélène est partie tôt, n’est-ce pas ? | Hélène left early, didn’t she? | |
| Nous pouvons attendre, n’est-ce pas ? | We can wait, can’t we? |
N’est-ce pas is the inversion of ce n’est pas – "this is not."
* There are three English tag questions that don’t need a verb (right? no? innit?), but since they are informal, the best French translation of them is non ?
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