- Printable Teacher Handout. Tag Questions 1: An English-Zone.Com Grammar Lesson and Quiz. Question Tags (Barbara Donnelly) I-TESL-J. a4esl.org Question Tags Click the answer button to see the correct answer. You're coming to the party, ___? A. aren't youb. isn't youc. shouldn't youIt wasn't very difficult, ___? A. wasn't itb. isn't itc. was itTom is getting something for Sue, ___? Copyright (C) 1997 by Barbara Donnelly This quiz is part of the HTML-Only Self-Study Quizzes which is part of Activities for ESL Students, a project by The Internet TESL Journal. Tag Questions. A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a mini-question. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the mini-question at the end is called a "question tag".
A "tag" is something small that we add to something larger. For example, the little piece of cloth added to a shirt showing size or washing instructions is a tag. We use tag questions at the end of statements to ask for confirmation. The basic structure is: Notice that the question tag repeats the auxiliary verb (or main verb when be) from the statement and changes it to negative or positive.
A question tag is the "mini-question" at the end. We will now look at positive statement tag questions. Question tags. Grammar Reference | LearnEnglish | British Council | Question tags. Question tags Question tags are the short questions that we put on the end of sentences – particularly in spoken English. There are lots of different question tags but the rules are not difficult to learn. Positive/negative If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative ….
He’s a doctor, isn’t he? ... and if the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive. You haven’t met him, have you? With auxiliary verbs The question tag uses the same verb as the main part of the sentence. They’ve gone away for a few days, haven’t they? Without auxiliary verbs If the main part of the sentence doesn’t have an auxiliary verb, the question tag uses an appropriate form of ‘do’. I said that, didn’t I? With modal verbs If there is a modal verb in the main part of the sentence the question tag uses the same modal verb.
They couldn’t hear me, could they? With ‘I am’ Be careful with question tags with sentences that start ‘I am’. I’m the fastest, aren’t I? Intonation. English Grammar Question Tags. We use tags in spoken English but not in formal written English. They are not really questions but are a way of asking the other person to make a comment and so keep the conversation open.
Making a tag is very mechanical. To make a tag, use the first auxiliary. If there is no auxiliary, use do, does or did. With a positive sentence, make a negative tag and with a negative sentence, make a positive tag. It's beautiful, isn't it? Notice these: There isn't an ATM here, is there? To reply, use the same auxiliary: It's beautiful, isn't it? Understanding and Using Tag Questions (#3), by Dennis Oliver - Free English Grammar Lessons. Tag questions are something like negative questions. They are used when someone thinks he or she knows an answerand wants confirmation. There are two very commonly usedtypes of tag questions--one made from affirmative ( + )sentences, the other made from negative ( - ) sentences: He's from Italy, isn't he? /He isn't from Italy, is he? She's living in London, isn't she? /She isn't living in London, is she?
There were at the party, weren't they? She speaks Estonian, doesn't she? He had a good time, didn't he? She's lived here a long time, hasn't she? They'd left when you arrived, hadn't they? He can help us, can't he? Etc.