Question tags are short questions that follow a sentence, especially in spoken English, and are used to ask if something is true, to ask people to agree, or continue a conversation. There are three rules for question tags: use a negative tag after a positive sentence and vice versa, use the same auxiliary verb as the main sentence, and if there is no auxiliary verb use "do", "does", or "did". Examples are provided to illustrate the rules. An exercise with 20 examples of question tags is included for practice.

1. Question tags

2. Definition
 Question tags are short questions that follow a sentence –
especially in spoken English:
20.03.18 2

3. Use
 We use a question tag to ask if something is
true, or to ask people to agree with us, or
just to keep the conversation going.
20.03.18 3

4. Rule 1
20.03.18 4
- Use a negative tag after a positive sentence and a
positive tag after a negative sentence.
e.g. + -
The Earth is bigger than the Moon,
isn’t it?
-
+
The Earth isn’t as big as the Sun, is it?

5. Rule 2
20.03.18 5
- Use the same auxiliary or modal verb
as it is in the main sentence.
e.g.
We’ll go out together, won’t we?
Albert can’t play the violin, can he?

6. Rule 3
20.03.18 6
-If the main sentence has no auxiliary,
use do, does or did:
Asian people like rice, don’t they? She
speaks Russian, doesn’t she?
Jack bought a new car last week,
didn’t he?
Kusnadi and rio went to Jakarta last
week didn’t they?

7. Remember!
20.03.18 7
 I am late, aren’t I?
 Let’s go, shall we?

8. exercise:
20.03.18 8
1.John and kusnadi smoke a lot, don’t they ?
2. My mother has lovely hair, doesn’t she ?
3. You do like this film we were watching, don’t
you ?
4. He can't speak English very well, can he ?
5. Your brother isn't married, is he ?

9. 6. She doesn't cook very well, does she ?
7. We can go to the cinema tomorrow if you want,
can’t we ?
8. They don't have a very nice house, do they?
9. She is the richest woman in the town, isn’t she ?
10. We should leave before it gets dark, shouldn’t
we ?

10. 11. You’d like a cup of tea, wouldn’t you?
12. They mustn't go too near the lake, must they ?
13. You’ll see John tomorrow, won’t you ?
14. We won't be going to that restaurant again, will we
?
15. Let's try and phone her again, shall we ?
16. You’ve seen this film already, haven’t you ?
17. Your uncle has never been out of the village, hasn’t
he?
18. You’re seeing Amy next week, aren’t you ?
19. I'm not speaking first at the meeting, am I ?
20. This was an interesting exercise, wasn’t it ?

11. Before the end the…
20.03.18 11

12. Question tags are fun to learn, aren’t they?
20.03.18 12
Thanks for attention!