Question Tags

Take a look at these examples that we could hear almost every day:

I said that, didn't I?

She eats meat, doesn't she?

They couldn't hear that, could they?

You won't tell anyone, will you?

It isn't working, is it?

These sentences look like questions. We use them to check if what we know is true about somebody or something.

As you can see, a positive statement is followed by a negative question tag and vice versa. A question tag consists of an auxiliary and a pronoun. We should bear in mind that if a statement is in the present simple, we should use DO/DOES, if it's in the past simple, we should use DID and so on.

Now, it's your turn:

1 Snow is white, ...?

2 You don't like it, ...?

3 It's a lovely day, ...?

4 Jane will like it, ...?

5 Henry wants to visit Paris, ...?

Question Tags

A 'tag' is something small that we add to something larger.

Question tags are very common in English. They are short questions at the end of statements. We use them when we are not sure of something, if it's true or not, or when we want to confirm something.

We use the auxiliary verb from the statement and the appropriate subject pronoun. If there isn't an auxiliary in the statement, we use do / does (present simple) or did (past simple).

To sum things up, a positive statement is always followed by a negative tag, and a negative statement is followed by a positive tag.

 Now, you can try these quizzes: