YAEGT Grammar Question

[ChristianV]

I've got a problem concerning Question Tags in the following case:
They must decide by tomorrow, ...
They mustn't be late, ...

And another problem:
What's the difference between these words:
large, big, great

 

[leftyman]

when is your homework due?

 

[ChristianV]

It's no homework. We did an exercise at school, and the teacher didn't know what was right. But I want to know it.

 

[NiteWulf]

Originally posted by: ChristianV
I've got a problem concerning Question Tags in the following case:
They must decide by tomorrow, ...
They mustn't be late, ...

And another problem:
What's the difference between these words:
large, big, great

I didn't know what question tags were, but based on what I looked up, the first one should be:

They must decide by tomorrow, mustn't they?

As for "They mustn't be late," the positive "They mustn't be late, must they?" Doesn't make sense for that particular sentence. It is gramatically correct, but there would never be a situation where "they" must be late. In a different sentence where there is a posibility that the action must happen, the positive would make perfect sense. "We mustn't tell her, must we?"

Large and big can be used interchangeably most of the time. The more notable exceptions would be if you're ordering a cup of coffee, you order a large size, while if you want a slice of cake, you want a big slice. Large is an established size category for a drink or dish, while big is relative. Great would be used to describe things that are bigger than big. The ocean is a great body of water. There is a great volume of air inside the blimp