S2 Remedial Classes
Exam review - Question tags
Question Tags
Question tags are short questions used to ask for agreement, similar to rhetorical questions.
For example:
Question Tags
If the sentence in front is positive, the question tag should be negative.
Example: You are listening carefully, aren’t you?
However, if the sentence in front is negative, the question tag should be positive
Example: You aren’t listening carefully, are you?
There is a difference between the two sentences, the former means that ‘You’ are listening carefully while the latter means that ‘You’ are not listening carefully.
Verbs to use question tags
Common auxiliary verbs for question tags:
- Have
- Do
- Be
- Modal verbs
Have
Reminder: If ‘have’ is used as an auxiliary verb, it is in the perfect tenses.
Example:
Have
If ‘have’ is not the auxiliary verb, ‘do’ should be used in the question tag
Example:
Do
2 types of question tag that uses ‘Do’
1) The word ‘do’ is actually
included in the main
sentence.
Do
2) Other verbs are used but none of the above 4 mentioned auxiliary verbs.
Be
Reminder: Be can be is, am,
are, was, were
Be
If ‘am’ is used, the question tag used should be ‘aren’t I?’
Example: I am the greatest, aren’t I?
Modal verbs (can, will, may)
Modal verbs can also be used as the verb in question tags.
Special question tags
Making a request/order, we use the modal verb ‘will’ and its different forms
For example,
‘Calm down, would you?’ -> actually asking a question
‘Calm down, will you?’ -> making a request
‘Calm down, won’t you?” -> demand
Special question tags
When we make suggestions using the word ‘let’s’, we use ‘shall we?’ for the question tag.
Special question tags
If the main sentence expresses a negative idea, the tag should be positive.
Example:
(except for
a few, a little)
Notes for pronouns used
They -> anyone, anybody, everybody, everyone, somebody, someone, nobody, no one
-> These words can infer that there are multiple people involved, so they is used.
It -> Anything, everything, nothing, something
-> These words indicate that the things mentioned are not people, but items, so it should be used.
Exercise
Do the given exercise to you and answer through the form.