{"id":1980,"date":"2017-03-07T15:58:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2017-03-07T15:58:17","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:58:17","slug":"question-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/question-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"Question tags"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question tags<\/strong> are the small questions that often come at the end of sentences in speech. They are used to check whether something is true. Question tags can also be used to ask for agreement.<\/p>\n

Note that we use a negative question tag after affirmative sentences and a non-negative tag after negative sentences. Here are the basic rules for the formation of question tags.<\/p>\n

If the main sentence has an auxiliary verb, this is repeated in the question tag.<\/p>\n

She can speak English, can\u2019t she?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He will help us, won\u2019t he?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is raining, isn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He is making a big mistake, isn\u2019t he?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She isn\u2019t coming, is she?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The film was good, wasn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t see her, did you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She couldn\u2019t come, could she?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t lend me a penny, could you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t win, did he?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t see my watch, did you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t call, did she?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the main sentence has no auxiliary verb, the question tag has do, does or did.<\/p>\n

Susie likes chocolates, doesn\u2019t she?<\/p>\n

She went to the market, didn\u2019t she?<\/p>\n

She gave you a cheque, didn\u2019t she?<\/p>\n

Question tags (advanced points)<\/h2>\n

The question tag for I am is aren\u2019t I?<\/p>\n

    \n
  • I\u2019m late, aren\u2019t I?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    After let\u2019s \u2026,<\/strong> we use shall we?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Let\u2019s start, shall we?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      There<\/strong> can be a subject in question tags.<\/p>\n

      There is something on the roof, isn\u2019t there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Sentences containing negative words like hardly, never, no, scarcely<\/strong> etc., are followed by non-negative tags.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • There is hardly anything we can do, is there<\/strong>? (NOT \u2026, isn\u2019t there?)<\/li>\n
      • It\u2019s no good,<\/span> is it?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Question tags are the small questions that often come at the end of sentences in speech. They are used to check whether something is true. Question tags can also be used to ask for...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-question-tags"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1981,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions\/1981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}