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Grammar

Tag Questions or Question Tags

Tag Questions / Question Tags

The tag question or question tag is a phrase added to the main part of the sentence. They are not really questions but are put with the statement in a sentence in order to keep the conversation going and make a comment. Tag Questions / Question Tags are frequently used in spoken English when you want to confirm something, but not in formal written English. So, we can define question tags as follow:

Tag Question/ Question Tag is a short question which is used for confirmation.

Tag Questions or Question Tags
Tag Questions or Question Tags

How to Form Tag Questions?
1. If the statement is positive, then the question tag will be negative
• You are a teacher, aren’t you?

2. If the statement is negative, then the question tag will be positive.
• He isn’t a teacher, is he?

3. Check the kind of verb used in the statement. If auxiliary verb is used in the statement follow the same verb in tag questions.
• They have won the match, haven’t they?

4. If the statement is without auxiliaries, then (doesn’t, don’t, didn’t) are used in the question tags.
• Ali likes reading books, doesn’t he?
• They postponed the test, didn’t they?
• They play cricket on weekends, don’t they?

How to respond to tag questions?
Question tags are used to keep a conversation going, you can agree or refuse to a sentence with a question tag. To agree or refuse possible answers are Yes or No.
• They are from Pakistan, aren’t they?    (Yes, they are/ No, they aren’t)

Important Points
1. If “never” is used in the sentence, then we use the positive question tag.
• You never help me, do you?

2. If “have” is used as a main verb in the sentence, there are two possible tag questions.
• They have a lot of money, haven’t they? (British English)
• They have a lot of money, don’t they? (American English)

3. Use “will/ would” with imperative sentences. And remember with negative imperative sentences we  use positive tag question.
• Close the door, will you?
• Don’t make noise, would you?

4. Use “shall” after let’s.
• Let’s go outside, shall we?

5. Tag question of personal pronoun “I”.
• I am a teacher, aren’t I?

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