LINGUOCIO: TAG QUESTIONS

Tag questions

TAG QUESTIONS (PREGUNTAS DE CONFIRMACIÓN)

A tag question is a grammatical structure in which a statement that is declarative or imperative changes into a question. This grammatical type of questions are equivalent to Spanish when we utter a statemtent and at the end we ask "¿cierto?" or "¿verdad?".

Example: She is Claudia, isn't she? (Ella es Claudia, ¿verdad?)
They like eating a lot, don't they? (A ellos les gusta comer, ¿cierto?)

Everytime I think of a tag question, I remember a battery, yes... the same battery that you put in your flash-light or in your photographic camera because it has a positive and a negative side. Look at the picture of this battery:

Did you identify the negative and the positive side? It is a clear reflection of what a tag question is. In other words that if the sentence is affirmative, the question tag goes in negation and viceversa. Let's give a look at these examples:

                 Your parents live in Colombia, don't they?
                 Ximena likes French, doesn't she?
                 He is quite tall, isn't he?

Notice that these previous examples are affirmative before the comma, and negative after the comma.

But if the first part is negative, the question tag needs to be affirmative as you can verify in these following examples:

                You don't look interested in arts, do you?
                He hasn't arrived yet, has he?
                Your children don't like vegetables, do they?

Something you need to pay attention when using these tag questions is to think carefully of what auxiliary I normally use when asking a question or making a negation. Look at these examples:

               He can drive a motorcycle, doesn't he?
               You turned your paper late, didn't you?
               My friend won't call me, will he?
               You shouldn't stay too long, should you?
               The children have finished their homework, haven't they?

Note 1: The intonation of tag questions may vary depending on the intention of the speaker. It is rising (goes up) when you are expecting a response in return. The falling intonation (goes down) when our intention is to underline the statement. Most of the English question tags have falling intonnation, contrary to what we are used... to go up when we ask a direct question.

Note 2: In American English these questions are called tag questions, while in British English these questions are known as question tags.

Note 3: There are some exceptions that it is pertinent to identify:

Let's hurry up, shall we?

Let's call María, shall we?

Do pay attention, will you?

Be good, won't you? (with falling intonation it expresses concern)

Hurry up, will you? (with rising intonation it expresses irritation)

I am looking good, aren't I? (formal)

I am looking good, am I not? (informal)

Related webpages:

Click on the links for extra explanation, examples and exercises on TAG QUESTIONS.

http://estudiaingles.blogspot.com/2008/03/tag-questions-esl-english.html

http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/tags01.html