Question tags are used in conversation and in informal letters. They are added to a statement to either indicate force or draw attention to the statement.
The question tag consists of the ‘helping verb’ followed by the ‘subject’ in the form of a suitable pronoun.
Rules to construct a question tag:
1. A positive statement takes a negative tag.
E.g.: Meena is a good swimmer, isn’t she?
2. A negative statement takes a positive tag.
E.g.: I did not tell you, did I?
3. The tense of the verb in the tag should be the same as the one in the statement.
E.g.: You are going to the cinema, aren’t you?
4. When the statement doesn’t have a helping verb, use ‘do’ form (does, did, don’t didn’t)
E.g.: We lived in Nigeria, didn’t we?
5. When the helping verb is ‘am’, the tag will always be aren’t.
E.g.: I am singing, aren’t I?
6. When the subject of the sentence is anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, none, neither, we use the pronoun ‘they’ as the subject of the tag.
E.g.: No one would object, would they?
7. Semi-negatives (hardly, few, little) take a positive tag.
E.g.: Few students knew the answers, did they?
A few and A little are positive and take a negative tag.
A little progress was made, wasn’t it?
Question tag is the most important chapter in English grammar. It is compulsory for spoken English. We already have discussed and learnt about other chapters of English grammar such as – Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition and Conjunction. The chapter is also taken from Business Communication book of MB0023 SMU MBA.
In this chapter, I have shared some important aspect and uses of question tags in English grammar. So, it is not the full analysis of question tag. I will try to introduce the chapter in details in coming future on the blog.
The question tag consists of the ‘helping verb’ followed by the ‘subject’ in the form of a suitable pronoun.
Rules to construct a question tag:
1. A positive statement takes a negative tag.
E.g.: Meena is a good swimmer, isn’t she?
2. A negative statement takes a positive tag.
E.g.: I did not tell you, did I?
3. The tense of the verb in the tag should be the same as the one in the statement.
E.g.: You are going to the cinema, aren’t you?
4. When the statement doesn’t have a helping verb, use ‘do’ form (does, did, don’t didn’t)
E.g.: We lived in Nigeria, didn’t we?
5. When the helping verb is ‘am’, the tag will always be aren’t.
E.g.: I am singing, aren’t I?
6. When the subject of the sentence is anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, none, neither, we use the pronoun ‘they’ as the subject of the tag.
E.g.: No one would object, would they?
7. Semi-negatives (hardly, few, little) take a positive tag.
E.g.: Few students knew the answers, did they?
A few and A little are positive and take a negative tag.
A little progress was made, wasn’t it?
Question tag is the most important chapter in English grammar. It is compulsory for spoken English. We already have discussed and learnt about other chapters of English grammar such as – Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition and Conjunction. The chapter is also taken from Business Communication book of MB0023 SMU MBA.
In this chapter, I have shared some important aspect and uses of question tags in English grammar. So, it is not the full analysis of question tag. I will try to introduce the chapter in details in coming future on the blog.
1 comments:
I would like to thank you personnaly for writting this brief summary on this particular topic.it has helped me go through my reseach on the assignment i was assigned on in Kabarak university in Kenya.Keep up the good work.Thank you
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