In this post, you will find all the information that you need to understand what tag questions are.
Question tags are the short questions that we put on the end of sentences particularly in spoken English.
| #1 | She had another baby, didn’t she? |
| #2 | She went to college, didn’t she? |
Now, let’s check some information and example so you can make tag questions correctly
Table of Contents
The basic structure of a tag question is:
A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.
| Negative Statement | Positive Tag |
| You aren’t 12 years old | Are you? |
A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag.
| Positive Statement | Negative Tag |
| You are 12 years old | Aren’t you? |
Tag questions are made using different tenses in English so let’s check example with some of them.
There are lots of different question tags but the rules are not difficult to learn.
| Tenses | Question Tag |
| Simple Present | You have money, don’t you? |
| Simple Present | She has money, doesn’t she? |
| Verb to be | She is beautiful, isn’t she? |
| Present Progressive | She is cleaning, isn’t she? |
| Present Progressive | You aren’t coming, are you? |
| Present Perfect | You have done this, haven’t you? |
| Present Perfect | She hasn’t called you, has she? |
These are questions tags with past tenses:
| Tenses | Question Tag |
| Simple Past | You had money, didn’t you? |
| Simple Past | She had money, didn’t she? |
| Verb to be | She was beautiful, wasn’t she? |
| Past Progressive | She was cleaning, wasn’t she? |
| Past Progressive | You weren’t cleaning, weren’t you? |
| Past Perfect | You had done this, had you? |
| Present Perfect | She hadn’t called you, hadshe? |
These are questions tags with future tenses
| Tense | Questions Tags |
| Future with will | You will come, won’t you? |
| Future with will | He won’t study, Will he? |
| Future Continuous | He won’t be studying tonight, will he? |
| Future Continuous | He will be studying, will he? |
Although the negative word not is not in the sentence, the sentence can be negative. Then we use the positive question tag.
| He never plays soccer | Doesn’t he? |
| She never runs with us | Doesn’t she? |
Use will/would with imperatives
| Turn off the fan | Will you? |
| Pass me the salt | Would you? |
If the main clause verb is I am, then the negative tag form is aren’t I:
| Sorry, I’m late again | aren’t I? |
| I am a little red | Aren’t I? |
We can use right and yeah in very informal situations instead of question tags:
| So, you’re not coming with us tonight | right? |
| They’ll be here about 4.30 | yeah? |
We use shall after Let’s.
| Let’s take the next bus | shall we? |
| Let’s grab some lunch | shall we? |
| Let’s go to to the beach | shall we? |
These are some examples of tag questions in different contexts:
This is a pretty good video created by Woodward English that explains what tag questions are
Another good video that you can watch on YouTube to understand more about tag questions was posted by mmmEnglish
Tag Questions Explained by Emma from the mmm English YouTube channelThese are some tag questions exercises that you can use to reinforce what you know about this topic
These are some tag questions files that can help you learn more about this topoc
I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English