Tag Questions
Question tags are the short questions that we put on the end of sentences – particularly in spoken English. We use question tags to make confirmation. If the speaker is sure that the statement is true, he/she uses falling intonation and if the speaker is less sure about what he/she said, rising intonation is used.
Learn these basic rules of question tags:
1. Only pronouns are used in question tags.
David has got a car, doesn’t he?
2. We use contracted form of not (n’t) in question tags. You live near here, don’t you?
3. If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative …. He’s a doctor, isn’t he?
You work in a bank, don’t you?
4. If the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive. You haven’t met him, have you?
She isn’t coming, is she?
5. The question tag uses the same verb as the main part of the sentence, if the main part of a sentence contains an auxiliary verb. If this is an auxiliary verb (‘have’, ‘be’) then the question tag is made with the auxiliary verb.
They’ve gone away for a few days, haven’t they?
They weren’t here, were they?
He had met him before, hadn’t he?
This isn’t working, is it?
6. If the main part of the sentence doesn’t have an auxiliary verb, the question tag uses an appropriate form of ‘do’. (do and does in simple present tense and did in simple past tense)
I said that, didn’t I?
You don’t recognize me, do you? She eats meat, doesn’t she?
7. When there’s ‘have’ as a main verb, it takes ‘do’ in question tag, if the ‘have’ means ‘possession’.
He has a car, doesn’t he?
It takes only ‘do’ in question tag, if the ‘have’ means ‘take’. Sita has her meal at 12, doesn’t he?
8. If there is a modal verb (will, shall, can, could etc.) in the main part of the sentence, the question tag uses the same modal verb.
They couldn’t hear me, could they? You won’t tell anyone, will you?
9. Be careful with question tags with sentences that start ‘I am/I’m’. The question tag for ‘I am’ is ‘aren’t I?’
I’m the fastest, aren’t I?
10. The statements containing the subjects like: someone, somebody, nobody, anyone, no one, none, everybody, everyone etc., we use ‘they’ as their pronoun in question tag although they take singular subject in subject verb agreement.
Everybody has come, haven’t they? (The subject ‘everybody’ takes singular verb in subject verb agreement but in question tag we use ‘they’ as it’s pronoun so we should use plural verb in question tag, in the example ‘have’ is used in the tag not ‘has’)
11. The statements containing the subjects like: something, nothing, everything, anything etc, we use ‘it’ as their pronoun in question tag.
Something is lost, isn’t it?
12. If the statements contain the words like: nothing, no one, none, hardly, rarely, never etc., they are treated as negative sentences and we use positive tag.
She has never been to Kathmandu, has she?
13. With imperative sentences, we use ‘will you’ in question tag.
Open your book, will you?
Shila, go to your class, will you?
Don’t make noise, will you?
Let me do the task alone, will you?
14. We use the question tag ‘shall we’ with the sentence starting ‘Let’s’. Let’s go, shall we?
15. ‘’d rather’ means ‘would rather’ and ‘’d better’ means ‘had better’ You’d rather go home, wouldn’t you? You’d better leave the room now, hadn’t you?
16. With the subject ‘all’, we can use the pronoun ‘it’ or ‘they’ depending on the situation.
All is well, isn’t it? (Here, all is singular and its pronoun is ‘it’)
All are well, aren’t they? (Here, all is plural and its pronoun is ‘they’)
17. If there is more than one auxiliary in the statement, take the first auxiliary for the tag.
He should have called her, shouldn't he?
18. 'This/That' in statement, becomes 'it' in the tag.
That was right, wasn't it?
