Which is correct:
A: “What a great show we’re having tonight, aren’t we?”
B: “What a great show we’re having tonight, isn’t it?”
And what part of speech is the phrase following the comma?
OK, I am not an expert, but I am going to say that the first is more correct because “we” is the subject of the sentence. It seems more logical that the subject, rather than the direct object (great show), is what the confirmation is being asked for. However, I really think that both of them are acceptable… perhaps the context of the question would also help indicate which is more appropriate.
Also, I think the answer to your second question is that it’s an independent clause. I don’t know if there’s anything more specific than that that would answer your question.
I would have said either
“We’re having a great show tonight, aren’t we?”
or
“It’s a great show [we’re having] tonight, isn’t it?” (with or without the part in brackets)
The part following the comma (in both versions) is a tag question. The part before the comma is an exclamative clause, for what it’s worth.
The first is definitely not grammatically correct. “we’re having tonight” is an adjectival clause with a missing relative pronoun, so “we” is certainly not the subject of the sentence. I wouldn’t say the second, but I don’t know if it’s technically incorrect.
Tag questions are formed (basically) by repeating the subject of the anchor clause. You have an exclamative clause there, but the subject is still “we”, which would make Choice A grammatically correct.
However, it’s a bit… stiff? Stilted? I mean, sure, you can form tag questions with exclamative clauses as their anchors. But do you really want to?
No, that’s not right. Check the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, page 920, “Position of the subject”, which has a comparison between subjects in exclamative clauses compared to open interrogatives.
Exclamative: “What a mistake they made!”
Open Interrogative: “What mistake did they make?”
Same subject, same direct object, different clause type. The first is not a dependent clause with a missing pronoun. It stands apart as one of the five major clause types.
Shouldn’t it be “grammar question” rather than “grammatical question”?
Doesn’t have to be. Words often have more than one meaning. Checking the definition of “grammatical”:
1 : of or relating to grammar
2 : conforming to the rules of grammar
A “grammatical question” according to definition 2 is a question that has been posed conforming to the rules of grammar. But according to definition 1, it is a question relating to grammar. Using the rest of the OP as context for the title, we’re able to conclude that definition 1 is, in this particular case, apposite.
Without having a cite to back me up at the moment, I’d like to carelessly suggest that they are both idiomatic in nature, and therefore beyond the rules of time, space, and grammar as we know them. Notice that they are both conversational, not quite a textual usage.
I would say the second one is correct, and the first one isn’t. The reason I say this is that the sentence can survive the loss of the “we” part, but not the loss of the “show” part. Compare:
We’re having tonight, aren’t we?
What a great show, isn’t it?
The second is functionally identical to the options in the OP. The phrase “we’re having tonight” isn’t the subject; it’s just a modifier for the exclamation “What a great show”.
I would suggest that the first is grammatically correct, but not worded well:
A: “What a great show we’re having tonight, aren’t we?”
Do you really “have a show”? Something else would make it clearer.
“What a great performance we’re having tonight, aren’t we?”
“What a great time we’re having tonight, aren’t we?”
“What a great showing we’re having tonight, aren’t we?”
All of these are better, depending of the situation.
B: “What a great show we’re having tonight, isn’t it?”
Terrible construction! The tagline doesn’t modify what it would need to.
I dislike the construction in general, I’d go with “We’re having a great show tonight, aren’t we?” (with a specific inflection of course). Or maybe to invite the audience a bit more, “Aren’t we having a great show tonight?” Or simply “What a great show we’re having tonight!” (the tag question after that specific wording just doesn’t sound right in your original construction, nor does it in any of Zoe’s constructions) maybe I’m just weird.
I concur that the second one is just poor in general, unless you want to go with “The/Our show tonight is great, isn’t it?”
It reads to me as though there are three missing words, implied words:
“What a great show [it is that] we’re having tonight!”
As Chronos points out, the exclamation makes sense without the last three words, but not without the first four. I suppose you could say that “great show” is the direct object of “having,” and that since “having” needs a DO that explains the sentence’s need for the first four words. But sentences can survive without simple verbs like “is,” and without simple pronouns like “that”; this one looks to me as though it combines both features in a way that makes intuitive sense to native speakers.
The tag question could refer to either clause, though, so I don’t see either of them as incorrect.
Daniel
What a great show we’re having tonight, huh?
-FrL-
What’s the CGEL’s evidence for the claim that “they” is the subject of the first clause?
Is the following the same kind of clause?:
What a story!
And if so, what is its subject, if any? I would think it has no subject, and I would think it’s the same kind of clause as the one labeled Exclamative above, and so by analogy I would think the one labeled Exclamative above also has no subject.
-FrL-
It’s clumsily assembled. A more natural way of saying it would be “aren’t we having a great show tonight?”. Said like that, the second example is shown to be incorrect: “isn’t we having a great show tonight?”
I don’t like either construction - they both sound wrong. If forced to choose, I’d go with the “aren’t we” version. But I have occasionally heard “isn’t it” used in this kind of sentence. Usually the speaker is from the Indian subcontinent. I think the “isn’t it” version is much commoner among English speakers in India.
I think the ‘correct’ way to view the first clause is:
What [is] a great show [that] we are having tonight.
It’s possible to construct a different, and logically-consistent, view, that may have ‘we’ as the subject of the clause, but most English speakers will interpret the clause as being mostly about the show, not about the audience (I can hand-wave some rule after the fact about the first noun being assumed to be the most important, but it’s really judgement). And of course, in language, clear communication trumps logic every time.
So the second option is ‘correct’ because it makes the same noun (the show) the focus of both clauses, and therefore conforms with the natural interpretation of listeners/readers, and makes the communication clearer.
If the author was in fact meaning to emphasize the audience not the show, they should recast it: “We are really lucky to be enjoying such a great show, aren’t we?”
I’ll go with the people who don’t like either one and would recast the sentence rather than try to pin the correct number/tense construct down. But if forced to choose, “aren’t we” is grammatically correct. Sounds stupid, but it’s correct.
Personally, I’d say (or write) “Great show tonight, isn’t it?”.