Marcio_Osorio

Different cultures greatly influence the way we speak. In my cultural environment, people lavishly employ the verb to be. Even as we say yes we almost always employ an is as in "He races a lot! is."

We tend to regard every little simple fact with an is at the end of our own observations. I will have a tough job making my fellow countrymen resort to a language-prime version of E-Prime!

Karen

Ok, give me clarity, when you say that you always end everything with an is, does that mean in your language you would say, 'I like this cake is'?

Marcio_Osorio

Almost there. I mean, native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese tend to (or indiscriminately) use the verbs "is" and "isn't" and their corresponding past tenses "was" and "wasn't", "were" and "weren't" at the end of their question tags. They will also mix the tenses, but most of all they will use an "isn't" at the end. Like this:

"Your sister will come pick you up here, isn't?" (instead of ", won't she?")
"The rocked failed to take off, wasn't?" (instead of ", didn't it?")
"Bob and Jack haven't discussed it yet, isn't?" (instead of ", have they?")
"Will they go? is?" (instead of "Won't they?"

It appears to me then that my fellow countrymen do not seem to know which correct question tag goes at the end either in speech or in writing.

Karen

Marcio, I love reading how you express the language from your country, it sounds as confusing to me as the language of the country in which I presently live. You surely have a challenge on your hand when it comes to teaching your fellow Brazilians how to speak and write in e-prime.