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Working with many IT workers from Indian origin, their English always frustrated me in that when they ask questions they won't say it in the interrogative form.

Working with many IT workers from Indian origin, their English always frustrated me in that when they ask questions they won't say it in the interrogative form. It was always in the declarative. "We are deploying the code, right?" versus "Are we deploying the code?" "This is Boolean, correct?" versus "Is this Boolean?" Is this cultural, or are they afraid to ask questions? It's almost as if by stating the question in the declarative form they are hedging their doubt. As an American English speaker, I find this annoying. If you don't know, be bold to ask straight, don't doublespeak it.

IIAOPSW 3y ago
English actually has this one backwards. Just think about the concept of a question mark. You're already specifying at the end of your sentences "the preceding was a question". Some languages have a literal spoken grammatical word that functions just like a question mark at the end of a sentence. In Chinese this word is "ma" (specific to yes/no questions). Also in Chinese, the way to pose a more general question mirrors the answer you are trying to get. You just substitute the information you don't have with the question words who/what/when/where/why. Eg "The bathroom is where?" "The bathroom is out back". When you stop and think about it, its actually kind of strange for English to pull the question words to the front, completely changing its sentence grammar for this one particular use case. I can't think of any other context where you can pull the verb to the front, violating the usual SVO ordering. English is weird, they aren't being timid (I think), you're projecting an interpretation of how they phrase things which actually has a simple linguistic explanation.