Question Tags Worksheet for Classes 7 and 8 CBSE

Read the following sentences.

• He wanted to buy a bigger car, didn’t he?
• I couldn’t help laughing, could I?
• It is not fair, is it?
• I wasn’t prepared for this, was I?
• He should have seen this coming, shouldn’t he?
• She writes a beautiful hand, doesn’t she?
• Now I can hold my head up with dignity, can’t I?
• You conduct music classes, don’t you?

A question tag is the short question added to a statement. Examples are: can’t I? wasn’t it? don’t you?

Notes

When the statement is affirmative, we use a negative tag. When the statement is negative, we use an affirmative tag.

If the subject of the sentence is a noun, we change that into a pronoun in the question tag.

The students have submitted their assignments, haven’t they? (In the question tag we use the pronoun ‘they’ to refer to the plural noun ‘students’.)

When a tag is spoken, the voice can go up or down.

• Now I can hold my head up with dignity, can’t I?

Here the falling intonation indicates that this is not really a question.

• You conduct music classes, don’t you?

Here the rising intonation suggests that the speaker is not very sure. This tag is more like a genuine question.
In the case of a request beginning with Let’s… the tag used is shall we?

After imperatives, we can use will you? won’t you? would you? can’t you? can you? or could you? in question tags.

Question Tags Exercise

Add appropriate question tags to the following sentences.

1. Let’s go to a restaurant, …………………….?

2. It is an expensive place, ……………………..?

3. You are the new secretary, …………………….?

4. He can’t wait for the classes to begin, ……………….?

5. Nothing can happen, …………………?

6. Open a window, ………………..?

7. Nobody phoned, …………………..?

8. Your mother is at home, ………………..?

9. Shut up, ……………………..?

10. There is little we can do about it, …………………..?

11. She offered to help the traveller, ………………….?

12. John will be here tomorrow, …………………..?

13. He shook hands with her, …………………..?

14. You are much better off where you are, ………………….?

15. Sing a song and forget your troubles, …………………..?

16. We can’t permit this, ……………………?

Answers

1. Let’s go to a restaurant, shall we?

2. It is an expensive place, isn’t it?

3. You are the new secretary, aren’t you?

4. He can’t wait for the classes to begin, can he?

5. Nothing can happen, can it?

6. Open a window, will you?

7. Nobody phoned, did they?

8. Your mother is at home, isn’t she?

9. Shut up, can’t you / won’t you / will you?

10. There is little we can do about it, is there?

11. She offered to help the traveller, didn’t she?

12. John will be here tomorrow, won’t he?

13. He shook hands with her, didn’t he?

14. You are much better off where you are, aren’t you?

15. Sing a song and forget your troubles, won’t you?

16. We can’t permit this, can we?

You can find a printable version of this worksheet here.