好不好 — Tag a suggestion at the tail and ask the listener to pick between yes and no: ..., good or not?

grammar → 好不好

TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法

好不好 grammar point · tier 1 · tag question 好不好 (…, sound good?)

Tag a suggestion at the tail and ask the listener to pick between yes and no: ..., good or not?

Hook inherited from 嗎.

Tag a suggestion at the tail and ask the listener to pick between yes and no

框 · Frame

[suggestion / request]，好不好？

觸 · Trigger

You have floated a suggestion and want the listener to weigh in with a yes or a no.

序 · The move

1State the suggestion or request as a full clause.Is it a proposal for the listener to weigh, not a plain fact?

2Close the clause, then append ，好不好？Does the 好不好 sit at the very tail, after the whole proposal?

3Leave both verdicts open for the listener to pick.Could the answer come back 好 (yes) or 不好 (no)?

例 · Examples

1我們we選pick個a (measure)地點spot / location，開店open a shop做生意do business好不好sound good?？

Let's pick a spot and open a shop to do business — sound good?

界 · Boundary

好嗎

好嗎 hands over one proposal and asks for a single nod (是/好). 好不好 lays out both verdicts — good and not-good — and asks the listener to pick one.

正反問句

Plain A-not-A splits the main verb (你去不去？). 好不好 is a fixed tag on the whole proposal — the main verb stays whole; only 好 is split, at the tail.

嗎

嗎 asks whether a statement is true. 好不好 asks whether a suggestion is agreeable, and offers both answers to choose between.

好不好我們去看電影？ → 我們去看電影，好不好？ (the tag hangs at the end, never up front)

你是學生好不好？ → 你是不是學生？ (a fact takes A-not-A on its own verb, not the consent tag)

我們走吧好不好？ → 我們走，好不好？ (drop 吧; pause, then add the tag)

English tags almost any statement (let's go, shall we? / you're tired, aren't you?). 好不好 only tags a suggestion or request, and it always lays out the two answers — never a flat statement of fact.