In lithuanian we have "ane?" which is a shortening of "ar ne?" which is "or no?" so basically "isn't it?" as well :3
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
203 points (98.6% liked)
Tumblr
438 readers
1 users here now
Welcome to /c/Tumblr
All the chaos of Tumblr, without actually going to Tumblr.
Rule 1: Be Civil, Not Cursed
This isn’t your personal call-out post.
- No harassment, dogpiling, or brigading
- No bigotry (transphobia, racism, sexism, etc.)
- Keep it fun and weird, not mean-spirited
Rule 2: No Forbidden Posts
Some things belong in the drafts forever. That means:
- No spam or scams
- No porn or sexually explicit content
- No illegal content (don’t make this a federal case)
- NSFW screenshots must be properly tagged
If you see a post that breaks the rules, report it so the mods can handle it. Otherwise just reblog and relax.
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
TIL "isn't it" is the linguistic equivalent of fried dough
The human need to ask for clarification strikes everyone lol
You mean elephant ears?
Or beaver tails?
And doughnuts, zeppoles, gulab jamun, you tiao, beignets, funnel cakes... I would really love it if everybody would dogpile on here with their own fried dough traditions
Just gonna throw in varškės spurgos, and žagarėliai, and skruzdėlynas.. and actually I could keep going for a bit with fried dough foods I think lol
Don't hold back!
In Dutch some people often use “ofnie” which is short for “of niet?” Which means “or not?” so “isn’t it?” as well
I bet many languages have something similar.
Japanese speakers, is this accurate?
Mostly yes, but the Japanese already had it before the Portuguese came along.
Yeah, I was just thinking there's no way that etymology is true. Ne is part of a whole class of these particles and appears in combinations to form even more specific "response-inviting" markers. A loanword for some traded good I'd believe, but not a grammatical feature like this, especially not because the Portuguese missionaries weren't all that popular in Japan.
Yes, it's a part of speech that's formally in the standard language. Japanase is full of these 'case markers', that don't exist in English. Japanese doesn't have articles or noun inflection, so you need them to determine what function words are in a sentence, or if it's a question.
In English it's slang. Hence you won't find it in a textbook.
I wish it weren't
But that's what makes it fun ne?
Japan has né??? Wtf was Portugal doing over there? Side quests?