n'est-ce pas
English
editEtymology
editBorrowed from French n’est-ce pas ? (“isn't it?”).
Pronunciation
edit- Rhymes: -ɑː
Phrase
editn'est-ce pas
- (chiefly humorous) Used to form tag questions.
- 1935, Thomas Wolfe, Of Time and the River, page 763:
- I know him well, we artists have the common touch, n'est-ce pas?
- 2003, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky, The Adolescent, translation of original by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published 1875, page 527:
- It is just a little quarrel of two most worthy women, n'est-ce pas
Anagrams
editFrench
editEtymology
editLiterally, “is it not?”.
Pronunciation
editPhrase
edit- Used as an expression of affirmation after a statement, often translated into English as a tag question.
- Bizarre, n’est-ce pas ? ― Strange, isn't it?
Further reading
edit- “n'est-ce pas”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɑː
- Rhymes:English/ɑː/2 syllables
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- English multiword terms
- English humorous terms
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- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French phrases
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- French interrogative particles