Which is correct? She said it was more beautiful, didn't she or wasn't it?
- She said it was more beautiful, didn't she?
- She said it was more beautiful, wasn't it?
This sentence confused me. Usually we use the tag with the main verb, so "didn't she" is correct, but there are some verbs like believe, suppose, and I don't think for which we use the tag on the that clause. My question is, is the verb say in the same group as suppose and believe? Many thanks.
The interrogatory tag has to reflect a declaration in reverse polarity. So it's either
She said, "It was more beautiful, wasn't it?"
or
She said [that] it was more beautiful, didn't she?
Notice that both declarations are positive, so the tag has be negative, i.e., contain a not, which in each case is hidden in the contraction n't.