Tag Questions and Confirmation — Khmer Grammar

To check something you already half-believe — English "…, right?" or "…, isn't it?" — Khmer adds a short tag to the end of a full statement. Because the tag simply follows a complete sentence, it is easy to attach to anything you can already say.

'មែនទេ' — 'right? / isn't it?'

(mɛɛn teimeen tei) tacks onto a statement to ask for confirmation. It is built from (mɛɛnmeen) ("true, indeed") plus the question (tei).

អ្នកឈឺមែនទេ
nĕək chɨɨ mɛɛn teineek chuu meen tei
You are sick, right?
នេះល្អមែនទេ
nih lʼɑɑ mɛɛn teinih laa meen tei
This is good, isn't it?

'ឬ' — the 'or?' Tag

Sentence-final (rɨɨruu) ("or") turns a statement into a softer "…, or?", leaving the alternative unspoken.

អ្នកឈឺឬ
nĕək chɨɨ rɨɨneek chuu ruu
Are you sick (or)?

'ឬនៅ' — 'or not yet?'

(rɨɨ nɨwruu nuw) asks whether something has happened YET. It expects either "already" or "not yet" as the answer, and pairs naturally with the completive (haəyhaey).

អ្នកញ៉ាំហើយឬនៅ
nĕək ñam haəy rɨɨ nɨwneek nam haey ruu nuw
Have you eaten yet (or not)?

Why Khmer Likes Tags

These confirmations are gentler than a bare yes/no question — they show you expect agreement, soften a claim, or simply keep a conversation friendly. That social softening is a real part of speaking naturally.

All of these tags follow a complete sentence; nothing inside the sentence changes to accommodate them.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Khmer course

22 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 15. A few of them, with the words “Tag Questions and Confirmation” is about in bold:

តើអ្នកនឹងត្រលប់មកវិញនៅថ្ងៃស្អែកឬ?
taə nĕək nɨng trɑlɑp mɔɔk vɨñ nɨw thngay sʼaek rɨɨ?tae neek nung tralap mook vun nuw thngay saek ruu?
Will you be back tomorrow?
Lesson 258

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