Tag questions with indefinit pronouns

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

I've got a question about tag questions.
A tag question is for ex. "You don't go home, do you ?" or "It is strange, isn't it ?"

How do you form a tag question if the subject is a pronoun like nobody or somebody ?
Nobody was expecting that, wasn't ______ ....? ...he ? it ?

First, a couple of comments.

1. Questions with negative words like nobody or nothing use positive tags.

2. Although words like nobody and somebody use a singular verb ('was' in your example), a plural pronoun is commonly used to refer to them.

Thus, what we say as a tag is this. Nobody was expecting that, were they?

Best wishes, Clive

Hi again,

So I have to say in the same pattern Somebody is behind the door, aren't they ?, have I ?

Yes. But I think a lot of native speakers would instinctively feel that this particular example sounds a little awkward. Thus, they'd be more likely to reword it to something like this. There is somebody behind the door, isn't there?

Best wishes, Clive

Hi Clive

Nobody was expecting that, were they? Nobody was expecting that, weren't they?

I believe either "were" or "weren't" can be used? Am I correct?

Many thanks.