Contrastive ananlysis of question in english and vietnamese

S + V… phải không/à…?

S + V…, Op + not + S?
S + Op + not + V…, Op + S?
In fact, Vietnamese doesn’t have tag question, we just translate it equivalently from English by a statement adding “phải không”, “đúng không”, “à”, “ư”…to the end of the sentence. In English, tag question is a grammatical structure in which a phrase such as “isn’t it?” or “do you?” is added to the end of a statement in order to turn it into a question or check that the statement is correct (Oxford Dictionary) and the voice raised or lowered depends on the purpose of speaking. In addition, if the statement is affirmative, the question tag must be in negative form and vice versa. That’s why Vietnamese learners find it confused to use, and it needs practicing regularly.
E.g.

English:
You have finished your project, haven’t you?
You can’t swim, can you?
Vietnamese:
Em đã hoàn thành dự án rồi phải không?
Con không biết bơi à?/phải không?

In English, a statement can turn into question if we raise voice at the end of the sentence which we call Declarative question. In Vietnamese, we usually use modal particles or pairs of adverb. But sometimes we raise voice at the end of a statement to express surprise and look for confirmation.

S + V … à/phải không?
S + V …?

S + V + O?
E.g.

English:
You want to go abroad?

He is going to visit his fiancée tonight?

Vietnamese:
Chị muốn ra nước ngoài à?
Chị muốn ra nước ngoài? (surprise)
Tối nay anh ấy sẽ đến thăm vợ sắp cưới phải không?

Secondly, Alternative question which offer options for people to choose, and they often use conjunction “or” in English, “hay/hay là/hoặc là/là…hay là” in Vietnamese between two (or three) words, phrases, or clauses. They have same meaning and purpose in both languages, while they differ in structure a little bit. Moreover, in English alternative question, we raise voice in options before “or” and then lower in the last one which doesn’t occur in Vietnamese.

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