the British " ... is it?" / " ... isn't it?"

  On 5/7/2010 at 7:18 PM, encey said:

I don't think I understand how to hear this turn of phrase. The French have "n'est-ce pas?", which I often hear with a playful tone and a sort of coy, girl-wearing-sailor-stripes wink. But when spoken in dry, UK English, all I can hear is patronizing or condescension -- as in when I say "Boy, it's hot out today," and a British person replies, "We'll it's summer, isn't it?"

 

For people who actually speak the language, do you use & hear this phrase in a humorous way? to express annoyance by pointing out the obvious or showing someone else's ignorance? or simply as a conversational matter of course? Help me get it!

 

And, do we have any US English sayings that are opaque in a similar way?

I always assumed innit could be used in either a regular conversational manner or an asshole manner. In your case, you could have said "Boy, it's hot out today, innit?"

we have phrases like "no shit". it can be either used to agree with someone, or to point out that what someone just said was fucking stupid.

Ah, good point -- yeah maybe it just goes both ways, kinda like me.