What are some alternative ways of confirming a point, situation, etc. apart from saying “…, right?” at the end of a sentence to make it a question? (e.g. You are going tomorrow on the 11:30 flight, right?)
What are some good similar ways to ask the same question (in a way that we are confirming our point and it is not all unknown to us)
Best Answer
Here are some options:
Here are a couple subtleties:
Phrasing the last question in the negative indicates that you expect a positive answer (confirmation). That is, “aren’t you?” implies that you expect that the person is going on the 11:30 flight. However, this doesn’t apply to questions that are just forms of “right?”.
In “Is that right?”, stress indicates whether you expect a positive or negative answer. “Is that right?” indicates that you expect a positive answer. “Is that right?” and “Is that right?” indicate surprise or doubt.
This works, but can make you sound like a foreigner:
Here are some more options, which might be perceived as more formal or in some way accusing or challenging the other person, though they can also be used neutrally, depending on your intonation. (Even the very typical options above can be made to sound challenging with the right intonation.)
And here are some other ways to ask for expected confirmation, which are familiar and commonplace but convey a distinctive emotional attitude toward the expectation:
To get a feeling for how all the various alternative forms affect the tone, you’ll just have to notice the contexts and intonation when people use them. If you're a beginner and want to play it completely safe, just use the four at the top of this message.
Notice that “that” is the most ordinary way to refer to the proposition. “This” also refers to the proposition but sounds formal. However, “it” would normally refer to something else, and it sounds clumsy or mistaken to use it to refer to the proposition in question (“You’re going on the 11:30 flight, is it right?”), at least in American English.