Tag Questions

Can someone help me out?

"They had searched for the lost city, but they hadn't found it, ...?"

What is the tag question for the above statement?

Thanks. Yeah, I agree with you on the tense. Actually I got the statement from a colleague of mine. Anyway, could you perhaps refer me to any website or materials for more detailed explanation on tag questions for sentences such as the above?

yen75

Oh, and one more thing. What if the comma is omitted? Would there be a difference in the tag?

No difference  -  and don't leave out the comma either! Tag questions are easy. These rules will help you out:

Positive - negative:

You saw him, didn't you?

He can swim, can't he? 

 Negative - positive:

You didn't see him, did you? 

You can't swim, can you?

Let's - shall we:

Let's go out, shall we?

Imperative - will/won't you:

Come here, will/won't you?

CB 

Yen, you're colleague should take longer lunch breaks.

First, don't remove the comma. It does affectn't the tag aspect at all, but it's generally accepted to put a comma before the conjunction when you have two independent clauses. Even if you omit it, there's no resulting change to the tag.

The tag works with the final part of the sentence: THEY hadn't found it. As explained in the very solid post above, if you have a negative, you keep the same subject, and switch to postive. They hadn't, had they?

The subject is THEY, not IT, so the tag requires THEY. Your colleague's answer would work only with "but IT had never been found, had it?"

Just point out the logic of this - the tag must agree with the subject. "It" is not the subject.

Yes, tag the main clause, and tag the last part of two independent clauses.

Note that in actual speech, sometimes we end up stringing too many things together, and by the time you're done, you or your listener no longer remember the main clause, causing your listener to say something like, "Wait, they hadn't what? Yeah, I mean, no, they haven't found it."