Forming an interrogative question

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Hi,teachers I have three questions.A:She's no intelligent girl, is she/isn't she?   (no as determiner)I think no intelligent sounds rather adjectival here.1.Which am I supposed to use is she or isn't she?2.How am I supposed to answer?3.Would it be better to use not intelligent to avoid confusion?Thanks.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

kook j
A:She's no intelligent girl, is she/isn't she?
(no as determiner)
I think no intelligent sounds rather adjectival here.
1.Which am I supposed to use is she or isn't she?
2.How am I supposed to answer?
3.Would it be better to use not intelligent to avoid confusion?

1. "Is she?"
2. "Yes[, she is]." or "No[, she's not]." ("No, she isn't.")

3."Not intelligent" doesn't work as a direct substitution.

You could say, "She's not an intelligent girl, is she?"

A native speaker would more likely ask, "You wouldn't say she's an intelligent girl, would you?"

"You wouldn't call her an intelligent girl, would you?"

The use of "no" rather than "not" is a bit special, used for a certain kind of emphasis.

Eg, "This is no ordinary girl!"

This is no stupid girl! (This is not a stupid girl.)

(Of course, you could not use a tag with "this is . . . .")

As an aside, I tend to think of all questions as being interrogative,

unless you're thinking of things like, "You don't find that unusual [, do you]?"

In this case the sentence order(without the tag) is declarative, but it's still "interrogative," according to my definition.

Kook j · Answer

Thank you for answering me.

I want to make it more clear about your answer 2. Uneless doing so there's a still possibility of no intelligent for being an adjective.

Which(your answer) means Yes.(she's itelligent)/No.(she's not intelligent),right?

Kook j · Answer

Sorry.

kook jThank you for answering me.
I want to make it more clear about your answer 2. Uneless doing so there's a still possibility of no intelligent for being as an adjective.

Which(your answer) means Yes.(she's itelligent)/No.(she's not intelligent),right?

Avangi · Answer

kook jA:She's no intelligent girl, is she/isn't she?

The question is a bit unnatural, but as you've framed it, the reply "Yes." would be taken as "Yes, she is intelligent."
The reply "No." would be taken as "No, she's not."

(These are in reply to "She's no intelligent girl, is she?")

The reply "Yes." contradicts the premise of your question,

and a native speaker would certainly add the tag, "Yes, she is!"

"She's no intelligent girl, isn't she?" is not an option -- just to clarify.

I believe the "ajectival" thing you're asking about cannot be constructed using "not."

She is an unintelligent girl, isn't she? (This would be correct.)

She is not an intelligent girl, right? (This would be correct, but casual.)

(The affirmative reply would be, Right!)

I hope I've made myself clear on "She is no intelligent girl!"

"No" is adjectival, just as in "There is no sugar." (Well, maybe a little different.)

Kook j · Answer

Perfect! It's transparently clear to me now.

Thanks.

Forming an interrogative question

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