Question Tags

Shyam an 18 year old college student sees a beautiful girl on the first day of college. He tries to talk to her. She avoids him.

The next day, Shyam over hears the girl’s friend say ‘Bye Geetha’ to her.

Shyam     : You are Geetha, aren’t you?

Geetha     : (surprised) Yes.

Shyam     : (looks at the science book in her hand)

You are a science student, aren’t you?

Geetha     : Yes, of course

Shyam     : (looks at the tennis racket in her bag)

You play tennis, don’t you?

Geetha     : (very surprised) Yes, indeed.

Shyam      : You’ll join me for a cup of coffee, won’t you?

Geetha     : (laughs) Yes.

In the conversation given above, the boy, Shyam wants Geetha to confirm the statements made by him. To get her confirmation, he uses constructions like the following

You are Geetha, aren’t you?

You play tennis, don’t you?

These constructions are called Question Tags. They are like yes/no questions. In speech, a speaker often expects the person addressed to agree with him/her. In such situations, a question tag is used.

A question tag always contains the auxiliary and the subject of the main sentence.

Geetha is beautiful, isn’t she?

If the main sentence is positive, the tag will be negative.

e.g. It is raining, isn’t it?

If the main sentence is negative, the tag will be positive.

e.g. It isn’t raining, is it?

We use different auxiliaries to form question tags depending upon the form or tense of the main sentence.

We use tag questions just to confirm somebody’s agreement or to confirm if you’re right.

This depends on how we say the tag sentence.

If our voice goes down, we call it falling tone. This is used to make a statement or comment on something/somebody. We are sure about something and simply want somebody’s agreement.

Teaching is rewarding, isn’t it?

If our voice goes up, we call it rising tone. This means we are asking a question and would like an answer. We are not sure.

You’re a teacher, aren’t you?

Most of the time we use question tags with a falling tone.

= Question Tags - Worksheet =

Present tense
You’re from Mysore, __________

She isn’t Indian, __________

Ram works in this college, ___________

Children don’t like animals, ___________

They’re playing cricket, ___________

You’re not listening to me, ___________

Police have not yet arrested the suspect, __________

Veena has been living in Bangalore for 5 years, ___________

Past tense
You were here last night, __________

Sam worked in this company, ___________

He was jogging yesterday evening, ___________

Geetha hadn’t arrived, __________

Future tense
You won’t be there when we come there, __________

She’ll come, __________

Other forms
You can speak Hindi, ____________

He wouldn’t help us, ___________

I’m late, ___________

Let’s go to a movie, ___________

Open the door, ___________

Everyone is dancing, ___________

There are problems, ____________