What are Question Tags?
Question tag is a brief question that is placed after a statement, and normally to validate information or to elicit assent.They are typical in the spoken English. Example: 1) You are a student, aren’t you? 2)She can sing well, can’t she?
Personal Promouns I,WE,YOU,YOU,HE,SHE,IT,THEY
can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would preceding a main verb that express either ability, possibility, permission, necessity, or obligation. Modals are not changed according to the subject, unlike all other verbs, and must immediately precede the simple form of the main verb.
Rules of Question Tags
1) Positive to negative/ Negative to positive. When the main sentence is positive then the tag is negative. 👉 She is a teacher, isn’t she? When the predicate sentence is negative the tag is positive. 👉 They aren’t coming, are they?
2) Helping Verb / Auxiliary Verb. The tag is formed by the same helping verb of the main sentence. 👉 He can swim, can’t he? 👉 You will come, won’t you?
3) When there is no helping verb, then use (do/does/did.) Do/does/did are used in simple present / past sentences that do not have auxiliaries.
👉She likes music, doesn’t she? 👉They play cricket?didn’t they?
4) Pronoun in the Tag. The subject of the main sentence changes to a pronoun in the tag. 👉 Mr. Sharma is here, isn’t he? 👉The children are noisy, aren’t they?👉 Sunita is an Engineer,isn’t she?
5) Imperatives with Tags.
6) For commands or requests we use
👉Open the door, will you?
👉Don’t make noise,will you?/can you?6) Let’s … Sentences • With “Let’s”, the tag is shall we? 👉 Let’s go for a walk, shall we? 7) I am → aren’t I? • Exception: “I am” takes aren’t I? in the tag. 👉 I am your friend, aren’t I? 8) Nothing / Nobody / Everyone → they • Indefinite pronouns are replaced with they in the tag. 👉 Nobody called, did they? 👉 Everyone is ready, aren’t they?