Do we know how to ask properly in English?

For those who know, most Malaysians speak Manglish or Malaysian English, which is a mixture of Malaysian languages or dialects mixed with English. We do have some who speak almost perfect English while some may be under the impression they speak fluently but in fact, cannot pass the test of a foreigner who is unaware of the presence of local words in every sentence. Phua Chu Kang the character (not Gurmit Singh, the actor) is a good example of Singlish, which is quite close to Manglish, in action.

But then again, I always bear in mind that it is easier to read than to write a prose. This is more apparent with Chinese characters with different types of strokes. Reading involves recognising words, compared with writing, which requires the ability to produce words to describe and convey the message intended. I am sure most people would agree that we can recognise a good essay easily but writing one ourselves is quite different.

Then, there is the difference between oral English and written English. Being able to write well does not follow that one is able to speak fluently. With oral English, or any other language, there is no substitute for practice to improve. There is no way anyone can say that 'I know the correct ways of expressing my thoughts in English', and without practice, can do so properly. Which is why the best way to learn any language is to spend time with the locals where one is forced to use the language at every turn.

Many Malaysian students made the mistake of making friends with Malaysian students and rarely with the British for example, in Britain. After a number of years, there was no significant change in their oral English. Yet, there are some who are better at pretending to be British, with all the accents to impress, when speaking with fellow Malaysians in our own country.

Personally, I tend to be affected by the language used by the other person or persons. If the other party speaks haltingly, I tend to do the same! If I speak with British, soon I will get the hang and express myself in a way that they can understand me. As Stuart used to say, we feel inadequate in Malaysia because you know our language as well as a few of your local languages, and we do not know any of those.

Coming back to my original topic,

Dr Lim Chin Lam’s article, What’s the question again? in The Star, provides authoritative explanation of the different types of questions in English to explain where we go wrong, using local expressions as examples.

GIVE me the key” (an undergraduate requesting the key to a room). “Drop me here” (another student to whom I gave a lift, asking to be dropped by the bookshop in the campus).

These requests were made in all innocence. Why was the word “please” so foreign to them? I puzzled why Malaysians, generally polite in their own language, could be so brusque in their English.

Could the reason be in the way that English is taught – or not taught – in our schools?

The above is but a digression from the topic in hand, i.e. questions.
Requests can be rephrased more politely, as questions. Example: “May I borrow your bicycle?” or, even better, “May I borrow your bicycle, please?”

If a request is made in the second person, the question, for example, is: “Could you water the plants?” The supposed alternative “Can you water the plants?” does not convey quite the same meaning. It is merely asking whether the person has the ability to turn on the hose and direct it at the plants.

There are other ways of asking questions. One may hear, for example, “You like this food, no?” (in parts of Europe) or “Lend me your pen, can or not?” (in Malaysia).

The message in such questions is clear enough, but the grammar does not pass muster. Actually, the two questions are non-standard variants of the tag question.

A tag question is a special type of question. It has a special construction, being made up of two sentences: a main sentence (e.g. a declaratory sentence, or statement) plus a short sentence (an interrogative sentence, or question).

The short question is tagged to the main sentence as the question tag, which typically requires a yes/no answer.
We may recognise the following types of tag question.

The affirmative/negative tag question
This is the usual type of tag question, with the main sentence in the affirmative and the question tag in the negative. Example: “She is sick, is she not?” or, when the question tag is contracted, “She is sick, isn’t she?”
When the main sentence uses a verb other than the verb to be, it may be necessary to use an auxiliary verb in the question tag. Example: “You have the book, have you not?” or, with contraction, “You have the book, haven’t you?”; alternatively, with an auxiliary verb, “You have the book, do you not?” or “You have the book, don’t you?”

The negative/affirmative tag question
This is the reverse of the above type. Examples: “She’s not sick, is she?”, “You did not go to school today, did you?”

The “same-way” tag question
Of note is the “same-way” tag question – with both the main sentence and the question tag in the affirmative. The question tag purports “to express intent, concern, surprise or anger (depending on the intonation)” – (Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1995).
Examples: “You shouted back at the teacher, did you?” (which has a menacing or belligerent tone).
“She had the cheek to go to the party, did she?” (which expresses disgust, perhaps, with the shamelessness of the said person).

The imperative in tag questions
While the main sentence is typically of a declaratory sentence (a statement), a special construction has the main sentence in the imperative form (a command). Such construction is often used to invite people to do things especially in British English (with “won’t you?” as the question tag) or to tell or ask people to do things (with “will/would/can/can’t/could you?” as the question tag) – Swan ­(1995).
Examples: “Do sit down, won’t you?”, “Water the plants, will you?”, “Don’t’ forget, will you?”

Ellipsis in tag questions
It is quite common to leave out pronoun subjects and auxiliary verbs in sentences with question tags (Swan, 1995).
Examples: “(It’s a) nice day, isn’t it?”, “(Is) your mother at home, is she?”

The spurious all-purpose question tag
In the above examples, note the relationship between the main sentence and the question tag: (1) the former and the latter have the same grammatical construction; (2) the pronoun in the latter corresponds in number and gender to its antecedent in the former; and (3) the verb used (or understood) in the latter is the same as that in the former – having the same tense and mood and number.

Unfortunately, these finer points are glossed over in Manglish, which uses “is it?” as a universal question tag, a kind of one-size-fits-all. It is tagged on to a sentence, regardless of the construction.
Examples: “He came here, is it?”, “He did not come here, is it?”, “She has never played badminton before, is it?”

This question tag is always incorrect except in one instance – when the main sentence contains the verb to be in the negative and when the subject of the verb is in the third person singular and of neuter gender, as in “It is not going to rain, is it?”
Parting note: Refer to Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2004) and note that the British also have a similar general-purpose “filler”, viz. the word innit.

Aiyah! English grammar got so many rules, so many exceptions, is it?