English Grammar
QUESTION TAGS
How question tags are formed and used in English.
Question tags are used to ask for agreement or confirmation.
- They are formed with an auxiliary or a modal verb.
If no auxiliary verb is in the statement, do/don’t/didn’t are used.
- A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag :
- John can swim, can‘t he ?
- A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.
This includes words with a negative meaning (seldom, rarely, hardly, etc.)
- She didn’t mean that, did she ?
- He seldom travels, does he ?
QUESTION TAGS |
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| POSITIVE STATEMENT | NEGATIVE TAG | ||
| He She They You We They The others You The party |
is lives are can must could should have was |
very tall, in Tokyo, very kind, drive, participate, carry it for you, join us, studied Greek fun, |
isn't he? doesn't she? aren't they? can't you? mustn't we? couldn't they? shouldn't they? haven't you? wasn't it? |
| Exceptions: | |||
| I Let's |
am leave |
clever, now, |
aren't I? shall we? |
| NEGATIVE STATEMENT | POSITIVE TAG | ||
| He You She He That We |
isn't don't hardly ever can't won't shouldn't |
in charge, believe that story, goes to the gym, come earlier, cause a problem, take the same flight, |
is he? do you? does she? can he? will it? should we? |