Tag & Rhetorical Negatives: 그렇지 않아요? / 안 그래? / 그치?

English has two overlapping tools for fishing for agreement. One is the compact tag you weld onto the end of a statement — isn't it? don't you think? right? The other is the rhetorical negative — Isn't she pretty? meaning "she's pretty, and you know it." Korean has both, and they map onto English more directly than most of Korean grammar does. The catch is the answer: because Korean 네/아니요 respond to the proposition and not to English "yes/no," a learner who reflexively translates gets the polarity backwards and confirms the opposite of what they meant.

This page covers the detachable tags — the ones you append after a full statement — and the rhetorical negatives that make a point instead of requesting data. For the compact single-suffix tag baked right into the verb, see -지(요)?; the two systems are complementary.

Detachable tags: statement first, tag after

Where -지(요)? fuses into the predicate (맛있죠?), these tags stand as their own little unit tacked onto a complete sentence. The workhorse is 그렇지 않아요? — literally "is it not so?", i.e. "isn't that right?" Its plain-style twin 그렇지 않니? addresses a child or close junior, casual 안 그래? drops to 반말, and everyday speech contracts 그렇지 all the way down to 그치? (and the polite 그쵸?).

These tags are detachable: the statement is grammatically complete on its own, and the tag is bolted on afterward, set off by a comma or a pause. That's the structural difference from -지(요)?, which lives inside the verb and can't be peeled off.

Rhetorical negatives: a negated question expecting "yes"

The second device is the rhetorical negative — you phrase something as a negative question, but you fully expect the obvious "yes." 안 예뻐? isn't wondering whether she's plain; it's "she's pretty, right?!" pulling you to agree.

The negative framing is not doubt — it's an invitation. By floating your opinion as "isn't it…?" rather than stating "it is…," you leave the listener room to agree of their own accord, which feels warmer and less imposing. This is the same softening logic that runs through the full negative-question page; here the point is simply that it seeks agreement, not information.

The answer: respond to the proposition, not to English "yes/no"

Here is the part that trips up every English speaker. Korean 네/아니요 do not mean "yes/no" — they mean "your statement is correct" / "your statement is wrong." They agree or disagree with the proposition on the table, and rhetorical negatives put the polarity front and centre.

Take 안 예뻐? ("Isn't she pretty?"). To agree — yes, she's pretty — you must say 네 (…맞아요, 예뻐요), because you are affirming the proposition "she's pretty." English "yes" happens to line up here. But watch what happens when you disagree:

That last row is the killer. To an English ear, "Aren't you busy?" → "No, I'm not" feels right, so you reach for 아니요 — but Korean wants 네, 안 바빠요 ("yes [your negative is correct], I'm not busy"). The full mechanics live on answering negative questions; the rule to carry here is: 네/아니요 answer the sentence, not the English translation of it.

Register: who gets which tag

The tags are sharply ranked by formality, and using the wrong rung is a real error. 그렇지 않아요? is polite 해요체 and safe with most people. 안 그래요? is its blunter, more challenging polite cousin — fine among peers but a touch confrontational. 안 그래? and 그치? are 반말, for friends and juniors only. 그렇지 않니? is plain 해라체, used downward to children or close juniors — never upward. Toward a clear superior, reach for the honorific 안 그러세요? / 그렇지 않으세요?.

Common Mistakes

1. Answering a rhetorical negative with English polarity. You mean to agree, translate "yes" as… wait, the question is negative, so you flip to 아니요 — and end up contradicting yourself.

2. Parsing a rhetorical negative as a literal information question. 안 귀여워? is fishing for agreement, not asking whether the puppy fails to be cute. Answer the agreement, and if you agree, don't flip the polarity.

3. Using 반말 tags across the register line. A bare 안 그래? or 그치? to a boss, teacher, or stranger is jarringly casual.

4. Building a redundant tag onto a verb that already tags. 그치?/그쵸? and -지요? are each already the whole tag — don't stack them or bolt an extra agreeing clause on.

Key Takeaways

• Korean has detachable agreement tags — 그렇지 않아요? / 안 그래? / 그치? / 그쵸? — that bolt onto a finished statement, complementing the compact built-in tag -지(요)?.
• Rhetorical negatives (안 예뻐?, 좋지 않아요?) seek agreement, not information — read them as "…right?", never as a literal "is it not…?"
• Answers hinge on the 네/아니요 proposition flip: 네 confirms the sentence, 아니요 rejects it — not the English yes/no.
• 그치/그쵸 are pronounced geuchi/geucho (glide dropped after ㅊ).
• Match the tag to register: 그렇지 않아요? (polite) · 안 그래?/그치? (반말) · 그렇지 않으세요? (honorific, upward).