Grammar: Question Tag

Question tag is a short question that we put at the end of statement. It is usually used to:

• confirm that something is true or not
• encourage a reply from the person we are speaking to

The rules are very simple:

1. If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative
• positive statement --> negative tag
2. If the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive
• negative statement --> positive tag

Examples:

A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag.

1. Sam is from India, isn't he?
2. Roy can help, can't he?
3. We are traveling to Switzerland next month, aren't we?

A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.

1. He shouldn't say things like that, should he?
2. You haven't contacted her, have you?
3. Our family wont agree with this, will they?

Some of the very basic transformation of question tags:

• is → isn’t
• am→ aren’t
• are→ aren’t
• will→ won't
• do → don't
• does → doesn’t
• did → didn’t
• must → musn’t
• should → shouldn’t
• have → haven’t
• has → hasn't 
• can→ can’t

Here is an exercise on question tag:

Question tag from IMSHA LEARNING