Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
Question tags
Add the right question tag to a statement — negative after a positive, positive after a negative, using the statement's own helping verb.
A question tag is the short question stuck on the end of a statement: You are ready, aren't you? It turns a flat statement into a check, and it is one of the most used patterns in spoken English. Three small decisions build every one of them.
One: the tag leans the opposite way
A positive statement takes a negative tag: She is coming, isn't she? A negative statement takes a positive tag: She is not coming, is she? The statement and its tag never agree.
Two: the tag borrows the statement's helping verb
You have finished, haven't you? They would agree, wouldn't they? If the statement has no helping verb of its own, the tag uses do, does or did: She sings well, doesn't she?
Three: the tag ends with a pronoun
Never a name or a full noun. Ravi is here, isn't he? The children are ready, aren't they? Everyone, nobody and somebody all take they: Somebody left the door open, didn't they?
Hidden negatives
Never, rarely, seldom, hardly, nobody and nothing carry a "no" inside them, even though no "not" is written. She hardly ever complains, does she? — a positive tag, because the statement was already negative.
Three you simply memorise
I am next, aren't I? — am not has no usual short form, so the tag borrows aren't. Let us try again, shall we? — a suggestion always takes shall we. There is time, isn't there? — a sentence beginning with there keeps there in its tag.
Worked example
Add a tag: "The children have eaten, ____?"
Is the statement positive or negative? Positive — so the tag must be negative.
The tag always leans the opposite way from the statement.
Try it together
Let us build three tags.
Each answer is two words — a helping verb and a pronoun. You can leave off the question mark.
1.The statement is positive, so the tag must be negative: You are Meera's sister, ____?
Have a go
Which tag fits? "It is very hot today, ____"
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.