QUESTION TAGS

These are short questions that are added at the end of the sentence when we are not sure
of certain information or when we ask a rhetorical question.

 You do not drink coffee, do you?

 Your cat is so gorgeous, is not he?

They are equivalent to the "coletillas" we use constantly in Spanish: right? ...

In English it is not correct to add these coletillas at the end of the sentence, no matter
how well it sounds. You will not listen to any native saying:

You've been to New York, right?

Instead I would say:

You've been to New York, have not you?

How are question tags constructed?

The first thing is to take into account the meaning of the phrase:

If the phrase is positive, the question tag will be negative.

If the phrase is negative, the question tag will be positive.

o You know how to cook, do not you?

o You do not know how to cook, do you?

The structure of the sentence will be:

Auxiliary verb + personal pronoun.

Sometimes we can see the auxiliary verbs in the main sentence and sometimes not. We
are going to see both cases.

o The auxiliary verb APPEARS in the sentence.

Verb 'to be' (present & past continuous).

o He is sleeping, isn’t he?

o You are working this week, aren’t you?
o She was ill last week, wasn’t she?
o They were eating, weren’t they?

Present & past perfect

o You have met my sister, haven’t you?

o She has eaten my cake, hasn’t she?
o You had spoken to Mary, hadn’t you?

Will & modal verbs

o It will be fine, won’t it?

o She won’t tell anybody, will she?
o You can’t take sugar, can you?
o I should study hard, shouldn’t I?
o He must be so sad, musn’t he?
Exercises:

1. You want to go on holiday, ?

2. Charles will help us, ?

3. Mary has a little lamb, ?

4. You are the new student, ?

5. They have cleaned the windows, ?

6. Their parents are divorced, ?

7. The door has been locked, ?

8. You speak English, ?

9. He moved abroad, ?

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10.You were there, ?
Solution:

1. You want to go on holiday, don’t you?

2. Charles will help us, won’t he?

3. Mary has a little lamb, doesn’t she?

4. You are the new student, aren’t you?

5. They have cleaned the windows, haven’t they?

6. Their parents are divorced, aren’t they?

7. The door has been locked, hasn’t it?

8. You speak English, don’t you?

9. He moved abroad, didn’t he?

10.You were there, weren’t you?