have/haven't

What I learned at school is that only the first one is correct.

In the first one, you are confirming something you already believe. Perhpas you want to talk more about it with the person and you need to confirm that you have it in common.

You've seen the last Harry Potter movie, haven't you? You've eated at Banburry's, haven't you? You've been to London, haven't you?

In the second one, you've just learned a new piece of information. It can

Thanks indeed!

I think they differ in intonation, don't they?

The positive tag to a positive statement can also convey aggression:

1. You've been looking through my private papers again, have you? Well, in that case, I'm afraid I'll have to shoot you.

<bang>

<groan>

<clunk>

Moral: duck whenever you hear a positive tag to a positive statement.

MrP

MrPedanticMoral: duck whenever you hear a positive tag to a positive statement.

Yup. "Haven't you" is a TAG and when you form a Tag Question, the tag takes the opposite form of the intial phrase.

So, you would also get;

"You haven't been to A, have you?"
"You haven't seen my socks, have you?"

It's all about Tag Question.

Siggy

Thanks guys. I had thought that we had to seperate the tag from the main clause in the second example into a new sentence. My grammar really needs revising!

I don't know if the grammar part of a language is more likely to be forgiven than the other parts of the language. Or maybe it's only me, I'm getting old, I know that!