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  • You think '不是'in '英子，你不是在一家公司工作吗？' is really '是不是‘？？ '是不是 = are you or aren't you‘'不是 = aren't you’ An English speaker will never say 'Yes, I'm not' or 'Yes, I don't' even though it is impeccable logic. That's what the Chinese have: impeccable logic. （Except maybe my girlfriend, but don't tell her I said that!)
    – Pedroski
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 4:00
  • No. In the original question 你不是...? is equal to Aren't you...?. "是不是" is equal to "correct or incorrect" rather than "Are you or aren't you".
    – Wang Dingwei
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 4:22
  • This is the correct answer. Same as my answer: Yingzi misspoke.
    – user1032613
    Commented Dec 8, 2014 at 15:01
  • +1, I've always wondered if Chinese did a positive confirmation of a negative statement, like Japanese did. Since it's less common to hear it, I always assumed Chinese sidestepped the issue by simply responding with 我不抽 ... also ... is it common to hear 你不抽烟，是不是？ rather than 你抽不抽烟？ or something like 你会抽烟吗？
    – Ming
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 6:17
  • 1
    @Ming Question tags are of limited use in English and it's even more so in Chinese. So no, you don't hear "你不抽烟，是不是？" as often as the other two. Actually you may never hear it. The Chinese usually ask 你不抽烟吧 and get an answer of 抽 or 不抽.
    – Wang Dingwei
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 7:47