any

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

From the test.

No-one understood that word, …

(a)  does he?
(b)  did you?
(c)  didn't they?
(d)  did they?

Would “Did any?” work?

Thanks

2

Strangely, I see two possible answers: (b) and (d), meaning ‘not a single person’ can refer to two groups of people—either one immediately in front of you (‘you’) or them, respectively.

I think ‘Did any?’ doesn’t work there. For it to be a tag, the first part of the sentence should be ‘any of you\them\us’ in the negative. Like, ‘Any of us… didn’t even dream of success at that time, did any?’

3

On further consideration, the answer could also be © making it sound rather hostile\scornful: ‘No-one understood that word, didn’t they? Just waste of time and money on that bunch of blockheads.’

My second part still stands.

4

Only d is possible.

5

Well, now I’ve dug a bit deeper, I agree d) is a classic/preferable answer:
“If the subject is nobody, somebody, everybody, no one, someone or everyone, we use “they” in the tag question.”
eslbase.com/grammar/tag-questions

Still why not leave some room for c):
“Negative-negative tag questions usually sound rather hostile:
• So you don’t like my looks, don’t you? (British English)”
englishclub.com/grammar/tag-questions.htm
• We can also have a negative sentence with a negative question tag, but that is a lot of negativeness and it sounds aggressive:
• - Oh, I heard that you don’t like my house, don’t you? :arrow_lower_right:

Hostile or not, but they do exist…

6

Please additionally see to one more question below.

  1. No-one understood that word, did the ones?

If, eventually, “did the ones” were possible, would it be considered like looking down on the group that couldn’t understand the word?

Thanks

7

I think you’re not free to ‘choose’ the tail in tag questions. Its choice is dependent on and determined by the first part of the sentence.
‘No-one’ in the first part, nudges you in the direction of ‘they’ in the tag question, as you could see above. Simple.

8

No one understood that word, did they? - correct

All the other tags yjay are suggested in this thread are illogical, and therefore incorrect.

9

I think in the post-truth world, we are entitled to an explanation, not just statement, aren’t we?