Tu n’as pas fait exprès, n’est-ce pas ?

Tu is the informal singular you. It is used with friends, family, children, and other people you address casually.

If you wanted the formal singular or plural version, you would say:

Vous n’avez pas fait exprès, n’est-ce pas ?

This is because ne becomes n’ before a vowel sound. The verb form as begins with a vowel, so ne as becomes n’as.

This is called elision:

• ne + as → n’as
• ne + est → n’est

Standard French negation is usually built with ne ... pas around the verb.

In this sentence:

• n’ = the shortened form of ne
• pas = the second part of the negative

So:

• Tu as fait exprès = You did it on purpose
• Tu n’as pas fait exprès = You didn’t do it on purpose

In everyday spoken French, people often drop ne, so you may hear: T’as pas fait exprès, n’est-ce pas ?

Because this sentence is in a compound tense: passé composé.

The verb is:

• as = auxiliary verb (avoir)
• fait = past participle

With ne ... pas, the negative normally goes around the auxiliary, not around the past participle:

• Tu n’as pas fait
• not Tu as fait pas

This is a very common pattern in French:

• Je n’ai pas vu
• Il n’a pas compris
• Nous n’avons pas fini

It is the passé composé, one of the main past tenses in French.

Here:

• as = present tense of avoir
• fait = past participle of faire

So tu as fait literally means something like you have done, but in normal English it is often translated simply as you did.

Because with avoir, the past participle usually does not agree with the subject.

So even if the subject is female, you still normally say:

• Tu as fait exprès
• Elle a fait exprès

The form would only change in special cases, such as when a direct object comes before the verb.

Faire exprès is a fixed expression meaning to do something on purpose or deliberately.

It should be learned as a whole expression, not translated word by word.

Examples:

• Il l’a fait exprès. = He did it on purpose.
• Je n’ai pas fait exprès. = I didn’t mean to / I didn’t do it on purpose.

You may hear par exprès in some varieties of spoken French, but standard French usually prefers exprès on its own, especially after faire.

So for learners, the safest form is:

• faire exprès

That is the version you should aim to use.

N’est-ce pas ? is a tag question. In English, it works like isn’t that so?, right?, or sometimes didn’t you?, depending on context.

Literally, it comes from is it not?, but in real French it functions as a set phrase used to ask for confirmation.

So here it softens the statement and checks that the other person agrees:

• Tu n’as pas fait exprès, n’est-ce pas ?
• You didn’t do it on purpose, right?

English tag questions usually match the subject and tense very closely:

• You didn’t do it, did you?

French often does not work that way. Instead, it commonly uses the fixed expression n’est-ce pas ? to ask for confirmation.

So even though the main clause is about tu and a past action, French can still simply use:

• n’est-ce pas ?

Yes, but it can sound a little more careful, polite, or formal than some everyday alternatives.

In casual spoken French, people might also say:

• Tu n’as pas fait exprès, hein ?
• Tu n’as pas fait exprès, non ?

So n’est-ce pas ? is correct and natural, but it may sound slightly more formal or more textbook-like than hein ? or non ?

Grammatically, yes, but that would not mean the same thing in tone.

N’as-tu pas fait exprès ? is a more direct question formed with inversion, and it can sound formal or literary. The original sentence, Tu n’as pas fait exprès, n’est-ce pas ?, is more like a statement plus a request for confirmation.

So the original version sounds more like: You didn’t do it on purpose, right?

rather than a straightforward question like: Didn’t you do it on purpose?