You Had Better Not Go There, ______?

I may be wro,g, but both sound clumsy to me. I'd say "and so had John" (I'm ready to stand corrected!)

1 sounds correct to me or perhaps it should be 'and so should John'. 'and so had John' does not seem to be correct because this is not a past tense.

PieanneI may be wro,g, but both sound clumsy to me. I'd say "and so had John" (I'm ready to stand corrected!)

The use of 'does' sounds completely wrong. I agree with 'had', but 'so' ignores the negative aspect. So, I'd throw my hat into the ring in favor of 'and neither had John'.

Teo You had better not go there, ____
1)and so does John.
2)and neither does John.

Which choice is correct, #1 or #2?

I believe that the structure is a corruption of "you would do better not to go there", the "would do" reducing to the simple (and in my opinion, incorrect) "had". If a tag is to be used, it will be difficult to find one that looks right. In the spoken form, I guess "and so had John" sounds best.

Hello, Philip!

Why do you think "had" is not correct? Isn't "you'd better" short for "you had better"?

I'd suggest:

You had better not go there, and neither should John.

Marius HancuI'd suggest:

You had better not go there, and neither should John.

That makes sense, of course. But I prefer not to "switch verbs in the middle of a tag".

PieanneHello, Philip!

Why do you think "had" is not correct? Isn't "you'd better" short for "you had better"?

You're right. I just don't like the construction to begin with. There's nothing wrong with "should".