QUESTION TAGS

Have you ever heard about 'question tags' in English? Observe the following image and try to guess the rule of this grammatical aspect. How would you translate this in your mother tongue?

Well, as you will later on realize, the well-known 'question tags' are short and simple questions that appear at the end of enunciative questions. What is more, it is very frequent to hear this type of short questions in English, mainly when the hearer looks for confirmation or the checking of his/her question.

This type of questions do not have an exact translation into Spanish; they have a similar use to the Spanish ‘no?’ in Spanish. Nevertheless, using the same negative particle in English is not correct, as it is shown below. 

Have a look at the following images in order to understand the structure of ‘question tags’ better. Remember that if the sentence is affirmative, the auxiliary will always be negative. However, if the sentence is negative, the auxiliary would be directly affirmative, as depicted below. 

• AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCE , + NEGATIVE AUXILIARY + SUBJECT PRONOUN + ?

You are English, aren't you?

• NEGATIVE SENTENCE + , + AFFIRMATIVE AUXILIARY + SUBJECT PRONOUN + ?

You aren't English, are you?

When I talk about auxiliary, I mean words such as; do, does, have, has, is, am, are, will, can... In order to guess the auxiliary that goes with each sentence you need to know that the auxiliary is imposed by the verbal tense, as depicted below. Nonetheless, I recommend you to have a look at the following list where you could clearly see which auxiliary corresponds to each verbal tense.

                 

However, be careful with the following exceptions. Have a look at the following examples in order to understand it better. In case you need further explanation, you can always post a comment below.

• I am late, aren't I?                ➡ With the personal pronoun 'I' we never use 'am' but rather 'are'.
• Let's go home, shall we?         ➡ With 'let's' in the main sentence, we use the term 'shall'.

Finally, it is necessary to know that the intonation of ‘question tags’ changes depending on the speakers’ aim. Thus, a difference should be made between raising intonation and falling intonation, as illustrated beneath.

•  ↗ INTONATION when the speaker wants to know the answer to his/her question.

You are English, aren't you? ↗ 

I don't know if you are English, I'm asking you to know the correct answer.

• ↘ INTONATION when the speaker just wants checking or verification of his/her question, since the speaker already knows the correct answer, which is the one being asked.

You are English, aren't you?  ↘ 

I know you're English, but I just want your checking. It is like a kind of rethorical question, since you already know which the correct answer is.

All in all, it is necessary to lean how to use the usage of ‘question tags’ in English since it is the unique way of sounding more like a native speaker. Consequently, it is time to leave the Spanish ‘no?’ behind and start using the English ‘aren’t you?’. Don’t you think so?

Try to complete the following sentence with ‘question tags’ without looking to the correct answer. Then, keep on practicing with the extra exercises posted just beneath.

• You are a student, ___aren't you___?
• He      studies Spanish, ___doesn't he___?
• You have studied all week, ___haven't you___?
• He will pass the exam, ____won't he___?
• You could do it for me, ___couldn't you____?

                                                                                                    EXTRA EXERCISES:

• ⭐QUESTION TAGS - CHOOSE
• ⭐QUESTION TAGS - TEST
• ⭐⭐QUESTION TAGS - DIALOGUE
• ⭐⭐ QUESTION TAGS - COMPLETE
• ⭐⭐QUESTION TAGS - COMPLETE