We're sure that you have heard lots of question tags in English. They are not difficult, are they? Read the exercises of this section carefully and you will be able to use question tags easily, won't you?
2. Paco enjoyed Chicago a lot, didn't he?(Question tags)
Curiosidad
Springfield (Illinois State): Abraham Lincoln's resting place
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Imagen de Alexander Gardner en Wikipedia. Dominio público. |
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate. As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. His tenure in office was occupied primarily with the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Six days after the large-scale surrender of Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated.
Taken from Wikipedia.
1) Questions tags are added at the beginning of the sentence.
2) We use questions tags to check if something is true.
Complete the sentences with the missing information:
1) FALSE. Questions tags are added at the end of a sentence.
2) TRUE.
3) FALSE. We do use questions tags to ask the listener to agree with what we have said.
4) If the main sentence is positive, the verb in the question tag is negative . And if the main sentence is negative, the question tag is positive .
5) When the main sentence contains an auxiliary or modal verb (have, will,can,could, etc), we repeat the auxiliary verb in the question tag.
6) When the main sentence doesn't contain an auxiliary or modal verb, the question tag uses the verb do/does(n't) (in simple present) or did(n't) (in past).
7) If the subject of the sentence is nothing, everything, something and anything, we use it in the tag.
Nothing is easy, is it?(Note: nothing = negative, so the question tag is positive. Compare with: Everything is easy, isn't it?)
8) With imperatives, we use tags will you/can you, would you.
Intonation in question tags
We can change the meaning of a tag question with our voice's intonation. With rising intonation, it sounds like a real question. But if our intonation falls, it sounds more like a statement that doesn't require a real answer:
INTONATION |
|||
You don't know where Lincoln was born, | do you? | / rising | real question |
Springfield is a beautiful town, | isn't it? | \ falling | not a real question |
Ejercicio Resuelto
1) It's not raining now, __________?
2) Your friend Mary likes pizza, __________?
3) You don't know who the most intelligent person in the class is, __________?
4) Paco is visiting Chicago now, __________?
5) Come with me to the supermarket, __________?
6) His classmates haven't failed the exam, __________?
Comprueba lo aprendido
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Para saber más
Information about the question tags with explanations in Spanish.
Try to do these exercises about question tags to improve your knowledge about this grammar point.
Exercise 1 | Exercise 2 | Exercise 3 |
Exercise 4 | Exercise 5 | Exercise 6 |
Have a look here to check some information about the question tags in English.
Watch this video about the President of the United States who abolished slavery in the States.