What is the nuance of "isn't it" here? Is he purely asking Harry about his opinion?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
That's a great question. "Isn't it" is commonly used in British English as a tag question. Similar to the use of "right" in American English. We add question tags to a statement to make it into a question. Question tags are more common in speaking than writing and are used when we expect the listener to agree with our statement. So here the nuance of "isn't it" is that he thinks Harry will agree with him. When using tag questions, when the statement is positive, we use a negative question tag. Ex: It's beautiful, isn't it? If the statement is negative, we use a positive question tag. Ex: It's not fair, is it? If we are sure or almost sure that the listener will confirm that our statement is correct, we say the question tag with a falling intonation. If we are a bit less sure, we say the question tag with a rising intonation.
