ده باقي حواري مع المحرر اعتقد فيه فائدة واتمني التعليق
teacherThanks. This sentence was an item in the TOEFL test. Is there a rule?
honeyall4/2/2009 2:11:00 PM

On the TOEFL I would probably give a different answer. I wrote the answer assuming that this was from a Secondary textbook or practice book. From now on, please indicate where a sentence is from when you ask a question.
Editor4/4/2009 2:36:00 AM
teacher What do you mean? Do you want to prove your superiority???? Have I caught wrong you? by the way you asked me from where?
Honeyall4/4/2009 1:39:00 PM
TEACHEROn the TOEFL ?.....IS IT INCORRECT TO SAY IN A TOEFL TEST? EXPLAIN PLEASE
HONEY4/4/2009 3:04:00 PM
TEACHEROn the TOEFL ?.....IS IT INCORRECT TO SAY IN A TOEFL TEST? EXPLAIN PLEASE.
HONEY4/4/2009 3:07:00 PM

There’s no need to get angry here. The sentence in the question has two verbs, EITHER OF WHICH COULD BE MADE INTO A TAG. I know that our textbooks do not have such a difficult question, so I guessed that this was from an outside book. In that case, I have to guess what the writer of the exercise had in mind. Which verb did the author want tagged? It certainly looks like a trick question to me.
But on the TOEFL, which has multiple choices, I assume that only one choice would be correct. Again, either verb could be tagged, so my answer could be either of these (and I assume that only one of these would appear as a choice on the TOEFL):
We thought they would come, didn’t we?
We thought they would come, wouldn’t they?
By the way, it is now my policy not to answer about a specific sentence unless I know where it is from. I’ve had too many experiences of readers jumping down my throat after I’ve replied.
Editor