Yes/No Tag Questions with 'Né?'

A tag question is the little hook you add to the end of a statement to invite agreement: It's cold, isn't it? You're coming, aren't you? English tags are notoriously fiddly — you must match the verb, the tense, and flip the polarity. Brazilian Portuguese throws all of that out and gives you one tiny word that works almost everywhere: né? This page covers né? and its small family of cousins, and explains why they are so much easier than the English system.

né? — one tag to rule them all

Né? is a contraction of não é? ("isn't it / right?"). It is completely invariable: it never changes for tense, person, or verb. You simply staple it onto the end of any statement to mean "right? / isn't that so?"

Tá frio hoje, né?

It's cold today, right? (informal)

Você vem amanhã, né?

You're coming tomorrow, right? (informal)

A gente já se conhece, né?

We already know each other, right? (informal)

Compare what English forces you to do. "It's cold, isn't it?" but "You're coming, aren't you?" but "They left, didn't they?" — three different tags because English copies the auxiliary, tense, and subject of the main clause. Portuguese refuses to play that game. Whatever you just said, the tag is né?

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One tag fits all. You never have to compute the verb, tense, or subject for a Brazilian tag the way English makes you. If you can say the statement, just add né?

The most important structural difference: English tags reverse polarity. A positive statement takes a negative tag ("You're coming, aren't you?") and a negative statement takes a positive tag ("You're not coming, are you?"). Brazilian né? is polarity-blind — it stays the same regardless of whether your statement is positive or negative.

Você vai à festa, né?

You're going to the party, right? (positive statement)

Você não vai à festa, né?

You're not going to the party, right? (negative statement — tag unchanged)

In English the second one would force "…are you?". In Portuguese both keep né?. This is liberating: you never recompute the tag based on what came before it.

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English tags flip polarity (positive ↔ negative); né? never flips. Stop trying to "reverse" it — it stays né? after positive and negative statements alike.

A note on spelling and pitch

Write it né? — one word, with the acute accent on the e (the closed vowel from é). You may also see the fuller não é? written out, especially in more careful (formal) text; né? is the spoken-language (informal) spelling and is now thoroughly accepted in casual writing, texts, and dialogue. Like all yes/no questions, it carries a rising final pitch. Said with a flatter, falling pitch, né drifts toward a mere filler ("…you know…") rather than a genuine request for confirmation.

The family of cousins

Né? is the workhorse, but Brazilians use several other invariable tags, each with a slightly different flavor.

Tag	From / sense	Use
né?	= não é?	General agreement-seeking (informal)
não é?	full form of né?	Slightly more careful/neutral
certo?	"right?"	Confirming understanding/agreement
tá?	= está? "okay?"	Checking the listener is on board / will comply (informal)
viu?	"see? / got it?"	Soft reinforcement, often after instructions/affection (informal)
não foi?	"wasn't it? / didn't it?"	Confirming a past event specifically

A gente combinou às oito, certo?

We agreed on eight o'clock, right? (informal)

Não esquece de trancar a porta, tá?

Don't forget to lock the door, okay? (informal — checking compliance)

Me liga quando chegar, viu?

Call me when you get there, got it? (informal, warm)

Foi muito divertido ontem, não foi?

Yesterday was a lot of fun, wasn't it? (confirming a past event)

Notice that não foi? is the one tag that does track the statement a bit: it is the natural confirmation tag when the statement is in the past tense with ser/ir ("…wasn't it?"). But even here you have a shortcut — most Brazilians would just say né? and be understood: Foi divertido, né? works perfectly. Né? is the safe default; the others add nuance.

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Tá? and viu? lean toward "okay? / got it?" — they check that the listener accepts or will act, often after a request or a piece of advice. Né? and certo? lean toward "isn't that true?" — they check agreement on a fact.

Why né? works the way it does

It helps to understand why Portuguese gets away with a single invariable tag while English needs a different one for every sentence. English tags are built by copying the operator of the main clause — the auxiliary or the verb be — and then negating it. Because each clause has a different operator and tense, each tag comes out different. Portuguese never developed that copying mechanism for tags. Instead it grabbed a frozen little phrase — não é?, literally "isn't it?" — and turned it into a general-purpose discourse marker that points back at the whole statement rather than at its verb. Because it points at the statement as a unit, it does not need to agree with anything inside it. That frozen quality is exactly what makes né? invariable and polarity-blind.

Ele já saiu, né?

He already left, right? (né? ignores the past tense entirely)

Vai dar tudo certo, né?

It'll all work out, right? (né? ignores the future tense too)

This also explains why né? drifts so easily into a filler. A marker that points at "everything I just said" is one short step from pointing at "the whole vibe of what I'm saying," which is how né? ends up sprinkled through casual speech almost like English "you know." Keep the rising pitch if you want it to be a genuine question; flatten it and it becomes conversational glue.

Common Mistakes

❌ Você vai sair, não vai?

Over-engineered — calques the English flipping tag. Grammatical but learner-sounding; Brazilians just say 'né?'

✅ Você vai sair, né?

You're going out, right?

❌ Você não vem, vem?

Incorrect — trying to flip polarity English-style. BR doesn't do this.

✅ Você não vem, né?

You're not coming, right? (tag stays 'né?' even after a negative)

❌ Tá frio, ne?

Incorrect spelling — the accent is mandatory: né (from 'é').

✅ Tá frio, né?

It's cold, right?

❌ Foi bom o show, não é?

Awkward — for a past event, BR prefers 'não foi?' or simply 'né?'

✅ Foi bom o show, né?

The show was good, right?

Key Takeaways

né? (= não é?) is the universal Brazilian tag: invariable, informal, agreement-seeking.
It is polarity-blind — it stays né? after both positive and negative statements (English flips; Portuguese never does).
Spell it with the accent: né?. The full não é? is slightly more careful.
Cousins add nuance: certo? (agreement), tá? (compliance), viu? (soft reinforcement), não foi? (past events). When in doubt, né? covers nearly everything.

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