ENGLISH QUESTION TAGS

Welcome to this lecture headed “ENGLISH QUESTION TAGS”. We will be discussing all about English question tags. Enjoy your lecture.

A question incorporated to a declarative sentence, or an imperative normally at the end, to engage the listener, make sure that something has been understood, or prove that an action has occurred is referred to as a question tag. English tag questions, when they have the grammatical form of a question, are unusually complex, because they differ according to at least three factors which are: the choice of auxiliary, the negation and the intonation pattern.

A question tag or tag question is as well known as tail question. It is turned into a question by adding an interrogative fragment (the “tag”). For instance, in the sentence “You’re Joseph, aren’t you?” the statement “You’re Joseph” is turned into a question by the tag “aren’t you”. The term “question tag” is usually preferred by British grammarians, whereas their American counterparts prefer “tag question”.

Common tags include won’t you? Wasn’t it? Don’t you? Haven’t you? Okay? and right?

1. Use

Question tag is commonly used in spoken English when you want someone to agree or disagree.

2. Form

Question Tag can be of various forms like:

A positive statement → This goes with question tag negative → You are John, aren’t you?

Negative statement → This goes with question tag positive → He isn’t Jack, is he?

Question tags are formed in many ways, and different languages offer a choice of formation. In few languages the most frequently used ones are single word or fixed phrase, while in others it is formed by a standard grammatical construction.

Single word forms

In a few languages, the question tag is a simple positive or negative. Another common formation is corresponding to the English correct? or the informal form right?. This more frequently is known as the word for true or truth. On the other hand, a word or short phrase showing concurrence can be used.

Grammatically regular forms

In many languages, the tag question is formed around the typical interrogative form. In English, this interrogative agrees with the verb in the main clause, while in other languages the structure has fossilized into a permanent form.

Grammatically productive tag forms

Grammatically creative tag forms are created in an equivalent way as simple questions, referring back to the verb in the main clause and agreeing in time and person. The tag may include a pronoun, like in English. If the rules of creating interrogatives need it, the verb in the tag may be an auxiliary, like in English.

Punctuation

In the majority of languages, a tag question is set off from the sentence by a comma as shown below

You’re worn out, aren’t you?)

Examples

Question tags with auxiliaries

You’ve got a car, haven’t you?Question tags without auxiliaries (don’t, doesn’t, didn’t)

They play soccer game on Sundays, don’t they?

She plays soccer game on Sundays, doesn’t she?

They played soccer game on Sundays, didn’t they?

Questions tags are utilized to keep a conversation going. You can consent to or disagree with a statement in a sentence with a question tag.

Affirmative sentence: He is from Nigeria, isn’t he?

Negative sentence: He isn’t from Nigeria, is he?

The probable answers are Yes or No. If you use Yes, do not use contracted forms. If you use No, you may use contacted as illustrated in the example below:

Yes, he is.

No, he is not. or No, he isn’t. or No, he’s not.

Special points

Even though the negative word not is not in the sentence, the sentence can be negative. Then we make use of the positive question tag.

He never goes out with his dog, does he?

If have is a main verb in the sentence and stands for states, there are two probable sentences – We have a car, _____?

We have a car, haven’t we? mainly British English

We have a car, don’t we? mainly American English

Make use of will/would with imperatives (Simple Present).

Open the door, will you?

Open the door, would you?

Don’t open your bags, will you?

Make use of won’t with a polite request.

Open the door, won’t you?

Make use of shall after Let’s.

Let’s take the next bus, shall we?

Making use of Auxiliary must

We must be at home at 8 pm, mustn’t we?

Yes, we must.

No, we needn’t.Examples and Observations:

“If we knew where it was we were going, it would not be called exploration, would it?”

“There’s nothing more invigorating than talking about the shortcomings of others, is there?”

“I like Abuja in July,

How about you?

I like a Lagos,

How about you?”

“A belt is a non-dangerous object, isn’t it?”

“This time we almost made the bits fit, didn’t we?

This time we almost made a few sense of it, didn’t we?

“Now ultimately you might have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right?”

“But we mustn’t think it has all been wasted, must we?

We must keep in mind the good times, mustn’t we?”

To really see your back would be fascinating, wouldn’t it?”

I cautioned you, but did you pay attention to me? Oh, no, you knew, didn’t you?

Oh, it’s just a harmless little dog, isn’t it?”

Question tags are not independent clauses, but they need a response, and are extremely interactive. Structurally, interrogatives are abbreviated yes/no interrogatives made up of an operator (either positive or negative) and a pronoun, which repeats the subject or substitutes for it.

Question tags are affixed to one of the following clause types:

A declarative clause: E.g. It was quiet in there, wasn’t it?

An exclamative clause: E.g. How quiet it was in there, wasn’t it?

An imperative clause: E.g. Be quiet for a moment, will you?

The declarative is the most frequently used ones.

Commas With Tag Questions

A comma ought to be placed between a statement and the brief question that tracks it when the subject of the statement and the subject of the question is the same entity (example 1). When they have different subjects, the statement and the question must be punctuated as separate grammatical elements.

Examples

George was not there, was he?

I will never stay in that hotel again. Will you?

Uses

Tag questions are more widespread in colloquial spoken usage than in formal written usage. They can be a pointer of politeness, stress or irony. They may propose confidence or lack of confidence; they may be challenging, self-protective or tentative. Although they have the grammatical form of a question, they may be metaphoric (not expecting an answer). In other instances, when they do anticipate a response, they may vary from simple questions in that they prompt the listener as to what response is preferred. In official settings, tag questions can frequently be found in a leading question.

Auxiliary

The English tag question is made up of an auxiliary verb and a pronoun. The auxiliary has to agree with the tense, portion and modality of the verb in the preceding sentence. If the verb is in the present perfect, for instance, the tag question makes use has or have; if the verb is in a present progressive form, the tag is created with am, are, is; if the verb is in a tense which does not usually make use of an auxiliary, such as the present simple, the auxiliary is taken from the categorical do form; and if the sentence has a modal auxiliary, this is reverberated in the tag:

He’s read this book, hasn’t he?

He read this book, didn’t he?

He’s reading this book, isn’t he?

He reads a lot of books, doesn’t he?’

He’ll read this book, won’t he?

He should read this book, shouldn’t he?

He can read this book, can’t he?

He’d read this book, wouldn’t he?

A special case occurs when the main verb is to be in a simple tense. Here the tag question repeats the main verb, not an auxiliary:

This is a book, isn’t it?

If the main verb is to have, either solution is probable:

He has a book, hasn’t he?

He has a book, doesn’t he?

Balanced against unbalanced tags

English question tag exist in both positive and negative forms. When there is no special stress, the rule of thumb frequently applies that a constructive sentence has a negative tag and vice versa. This form may express confidence, or search for verification of the asker’s opinion or belief.

She is Igbo, isn’t she?

She’s not Igbo, is she?

These are known as balanced tag questions.

Unbalanced tag questions feature a positive statement with a positive tag, or a negative statement with a negative tag; it has been projected that in normal conversation, as many as 40%-50% of tags are unbalanced. Unbalanced tag questions may be used for satirical or confrontational effects:

Do listen, will you?

Oh, I’m lazy, am I?

Jams: I refuse to spend Sunday at your mother’s house!

Jessica: Oh you do, do you? We’ll see about that!

Patterns of negation can illustrate regional variations:

This pizza’s fine, is it?

This pizza’s delicious, isn’t it?

Clever, aren’t I?

Intonation

English tag questions can have a rising or a falling intonation pattern. As a rule, the English rising pattern is used when soliciting information or motivating an action, that is, when some sort of response is required. Since normal English yes/no questions have rising patterns. E.g. Are you coming? These tags make a grammatical statement into a real question:

You’re coming, aren’t you?

Do listen, will you?

Let’s have a beer, shall we?

The falling pattern is used to underline a statement. The statement itself ends with a falling pattern, and the tag sounds like a reverberate strengthening the blueprint. The majority of English tag questions have this falling pattern.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing, does he?

This is really boring, isn’t it?

From time to time the rising tag goes with the positive to positive pattern to produce a provoking effect:

He was the best in the class, was he? (rising: the speaker is expressing surprised interest)

He was the best in the class, wasn’t he? (falling: the speaker holds this opinion)

Be careful, will you? (rising: expresses annoyance)

Take care, won’t you? (falling: expresses worry)

Every now and then the same words may have various patterns depending on the situation or implication.

You don’t remember her name, do you? (rising: expresses surprise)

You don’t remember her name, do you? (falling: expresses amusement or resignation)

Your name’s Clare, isn’t it? (rising: expresses uncertainty)

Your name’s Clare, isn’t it? (falling: expresses confidence)

On the other hand, the adverbial tag questions (alright? OK? etc.) are nearly always found with rising patterns. A special exception is surely.

Variant forms

There are a number of variant forms that exist in particular dialects of English. These are usually invariant, in spite of the verb, person or negativity.

The tag right? is widespread in a number of dialects across the UK and US, in addition to Indian English.

Would you like another drink, or (would you not)?

Did you want to go to the park together, or (did you not want to go)?

Rhetorical tag questions may be found in British English. For instance:

Speaker 1: Is the tea ready?

Speaker 2: The water has to boil, doesn’t it?

This is a dictatorial tag question that criticizes what speaker 2 perceives as the speaker 1’s impatience.

An antagonistic tag question is tagged against a statement that shows information that the target would not have had. For instance:

Speaker 1: I telephoned you this morning, but you didn’t answer.

Speaker 2: I was in the bath, wasn’t I?

Thanks for reaching to this point marking the end of this lecture.

Your Lecture Master:

Mst. Ugonwanne Joshua