Gateway to Grammar: Question Tags

Brian might be regretting what he said. The scary cat-bird end’s his sentence with “am I?”. This is a very common way of speaking in English and is called a question tag. When you see a question tag at the end of a sentence, think of it as meaning “or am I wrong?”.

People use question tags in 2 ways. Way 1 is with a tone which gets higher at the end of the sentence, like when you ask a question. Way 1 has the means that the person speaking is not 100% sure about their statement and they want to check what you think. Way 2 is with a falling tone at the end of the sentence, like a statement. Way 2 means the person speaking is making a point or being sarcastic; this is not a question.

How to use question tags:

·         Build your statement: “I look really silly in these shoes”.

·         Are you describing a thing? (adjective) or talking about an action? (verb)?: In our example I am using the verb “look”

·         For all verbs use “to do”, for all adjectives use “to be”: In our example I need to use “to do”

·         Make your question negative if your question is positive, and positive if your question is negative: In our example my statement is positive so my tag should be negative “don’t”.

·         Who or what am I talking about? Repeat it: In our example I am talking about myself “I”

·         Add them together at the end of the statement: “I look really silly in these shoes, don’t I?”

Examples of other question tags built in the same way:

·         You are Claire’s sister, aren’t you?

·         They smell pretty bad, don’t they?

·         We’ll be in France next summer, won’t we?

·         It’s supposed to be green, isn’t it?

·         I can always use a new one, can’t I?

·         He should say something, shouldn’t he?

·         I haven’t had enough sleep, have I?

·         He isn’t very interested, is he?

It seems complicated at first, but all you are really doing is changing the positive to a negative (or the other way), adding “do” or “to be” then who you are talking about. That’s it. Most of it is repetition of your statement! Try it out in some conversations, it makes you sound very native!