{"id":23391,"date":"2022-09-02T15:40:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T13:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?p=23391"},"modified":"2022-09-05T08:00:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T06:00:05","slug":"tag-questions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tag Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tag question<\/strong> is a short question we can add to the end of a statement. We use tag questions to confirm the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rules for Two-Word Tag Questions <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a. <\/strong>The subject<\/strong> must be the same<\/strong> in both statement and tag question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

b. <\/strong>The auxiliary verb<\/strong> or main verb<\/strong> in the statement must match<\/strong> the verb<\/strong> in the tag question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

c.<\/strong> If the statement<\/strong> is positive<\/strong>, the tag question<\/strong> is negative<\/strong>, and if the statement<\/strong> is negative<\/strong>, the tag question<\/strong> is positive<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’ve<\/em> been to Spain, haven’t they<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
You won’t<\/em> be late, will you<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
You’re<\/em> ready, aren’t you<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
You aren’t<\/em> going to school today, are you<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If the main statement has an auxiliary verb<\/strong> in it, use the same verb<\/strong> in the question tag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally there is no auxiliary verb<\/strong> used when positive statements<\/strong> have present <\/strong>and past simple<\/strong> tenses<\/strong>. In this case, we use the auxiliaries does<\/em>, <\/strong>do<\/em> or did<\/em> in the tag question. Present<\/strong> or past simple negative<\/strong> statements definitely<\/strong> have the auxiliaries doesn’t<\/em>, don’t<\/em> or didn’t<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You go to the gym on Wednesdays, don’t <\/em>you?<\/td><\/tr>
Jaime goes with you, doesn’t<\/em> he?<\/td><\/tr>
You didn’t<\/em> go to the gym last Wednesday, did<\/em> you?<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When “there is”<\/strong> structure is used, “there”<\/strong> is used in the tag question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s<\/em> nothing to do, is there<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
There<\/em> weren’t any books left, were there<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Something \/someone\/ nobody \/no one\/ etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When an indefinite pronoun<\/strong> is the subject in the statement, we use “it”<\/strong> in the tag question to mean something or nothing or “they”<\/strong> to mean someone or nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something<\/em> fell on the floor, didn’t it<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
No one<\/em> came, did they<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
Somebody<\/em> asked for you, didn’t they<\/em>? Who was it?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When to Use Tag Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tag questions are used to check information<\/strong> that we think we know is true<\/strong>. When rising intonation<\/strong> is used in the tag question, it means we are not very sure<\/strong> of the answer. If falling intonation<\/strong> is used, it means we are almost certain<\/strong> of the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising tone<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You haven’t met her, have you?<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
I could use yours, could I?<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Falling tone<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dress looks great on Marta, doesn’t it?<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
The teacher wasn’t very happy today, was she?<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A simple yes\/no<\/strong> is the usual response<\/strong> to a tag question. We can also answer by using yes\/no<\/strong> + auxiliary verb<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exceptions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive statement with positive tag question<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to use a positive statement- positive tag question when we want to express surprise<\/strong>, interest<\/strong>, anger<\/strong> etc., and not to ask real questions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you’re getting married, are you<\/em>? That’s great!<\/td><\/tr>
So you think that’s funny, do you<\/em>? Well, we don’t!<\/td><\/tr>
He’s coming home today, is he<\/em>? He has been saying that for months!<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Imperative sentences and let’s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sometimes add “will you<\/strong>?” or “won\u2019t you<\/strong>?” after imperatives when we want people to follow our advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t stay up late, will you<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
Finish it now, will you<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We sometimes add “shall we?<\/strong>” when making a suggestion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s go home, shall we<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr>
Let’s have fish for dinner, shall we<\/em>?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leave out pronoun subject and auxiliary verb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sometimes do not include<\/strong> pronoun subjects, auxiliary verbs and verb to be in the statement when used in very informal speech<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nice party, isn’t it<\/em>? (It’s<\/em> a nice party, isn’t it<\/em>?)<\/td><\/tr>
Looking good, are you<\/em>? (You’re<\/em> looking good, are you<\/em>?)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tag question is a short question we can add to the end of a statement. We use tag questions to confirm the statement. Rules for Two-Word Tag Questions  a. The subject must be the same in both statement and tag question. b. The auxiliary verb or main verb in the statement must match the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"yoast_head":"\nTag Questions | phone english blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tag Questions | phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A tag question is a short question we can add to the end of a statement. We use tag questions to confirm the statement. Rules for Two-Word Tag Questions  a. The subject must be the same in both statement and tag question. b. The auxiliary verb or main verb in the statement must match the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/phoneenglish.es\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-02T13:40:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-05T06:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@phoneenglishes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@phoneenglishes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"PHONE ENGLISH\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/phoneenglish.es\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/phoneenglish\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/phoneenglishes\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/phone-english1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/phone-english1.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":124,\"caption\":\"PHONE ENGLISH\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"phone english blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/\",\"name\":\"Tag Questions | phone english blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-02T13:40:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-05T06:00:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Blog\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#webpage\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/76165f65d4ee87fd79bb66a66b047cd7\"},\"headline\":\"Tag Questions\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-02T13:40:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-05T06:00:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#webpage\"},\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Grammar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2022\/09\/tag-questions-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/76165f65d4ee87fd79bb66a66b047cd7\",\"name\":\"Sarah\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23393,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23391\/revisions\/23393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}