ANN THERES JOY- QUESTION TAGS
Question Tags
• See if the sentence has an axillary verb or helping verb then to create question tag make it
negative if the sentence is positive or vice-versa, followed by the appropriate pronoun.
Tom is coming, isn’t he?
Tom is not coming, is he?
The children were playing, weren’t they?
We must obey our parents, mustn’t we?
They were very clever, weren’t they?
He would be doing it, wouldn’t he?
I am not late, Am I?
I am late, Aren’t I?
• When the subject is ‘this’, ‘that’, a thing or an emotion/abstract noun use ‘it’ as the
pronoun.
Life is beautiful, isn’t it?
The furniture is broken, isn’t it?
This is a wonderful pen, isn’t it?
• When ‘there’ is the subject, retain it in the question tag.
There is no class today, is there?
There was class today, wasn’t there?
• When ‘one’ is the subject, retain it in the question tag.
One should love their parents, shouldn’t one?
• In cases where there is no auxiliary verb but only the main verb is there, then:
Does/Doesn’t is used for Singular Present Tense
Do/Don’t is used for Plural Present Tense
Did/ Didn’t is used for Singular/ Plural Past Tense
Tom comes today, doesn’t he?
The children come today, don’t they?
The children came today, didn’t they?
Tom came today, didn’t he?
• When the sentence starts with ‘let us’ then then tag will be ‘shall we’
Let us study, shall we?
• For ‘used to’, ‘didn’t’ is the verb for the tag:
She used to dance well, didn’t she?
• For imperative sentences (order/request) the tag will be:
‘Will you’ – general sense
‘won’t you’ – urgency
‘can’t you’ – rebuke
ANN THERES JOY- QUESTION TAGS
Read it, will you?
Read it, won’t you?
Read it, can’t you?
• Little, few, hardly, scarcely, rarely, barely, neither, none, no one, none of etc are
considered negative and positive tags should be used:
Little is known about it, is it?
‘A little’ and ‘a few’ are positive and negative should be used:
A little is known about it, isn’t it?
• Anyone, somebody, someone, no one, nobody, anybody, none, neither, none of etc. will
take ‘they’ as the pronoun and the verb will become plural:
Neither of them is coming, are they?
Nobody is coming, are they?
Each of the boys was given a pen, weren’t they?