Tag questions are short phrases added to the end of sentences to check information, seek confirmation, or ask for agreement. Tag questions can make requests sound softer, encourage conversation, or show doubt, making them useful in everyday English.
A good place to start is examples with the verb "to be." Note that a positive statement is followed by a negative tag and vice versa. Additionally, the verb in the tag must match the verb in the main statement in tense and form.
But no! You are so excited, aren't you?
Caption 19, BBC Comedy Greats: Michael McIntyre on Google Earth
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Hello. You were searching for a hidden microphone, weren't you?
Caption 21, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: BBC TV Movie
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Just as we use "do" to create questions, this verb is used when adding a tag question for sentences with verbs other than "to be" or auxiliary verbs.
The Ambulocetus does look like a link between a land animal and a whale, doesn't it?
Caption 11, Green TV: Evolution of the Whale
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But you don't care about those, do you?
Caption 4, The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon meets James Earl Jones
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You made us what we are, didn't you?
Caption 20, Movie Trailers: Interview with the Vampire
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A sentence in the present perfect requires "have" in the tag rather than "to be" or "do." Similarly, the future tense requires "will," or "won't" if the tag is negative.
You have won a few races, haven't you?
Caption 15, James Dean: Interview & Famous Drive Safely Spot
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Remember me, boy, will you?
Caption 25, Spiller Feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)
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Make yourself at home! Won't you? OK.
Captions 82-83, ALF: Some enchanted evening
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Modal verbs such as "would," "should," "can," and "could" are also used in tag questions in certain instances.
Just come over here and sit down, would you? -OK.
Caption 7, Campus Movie Fest: Small Talk
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Further Learning
In addition to spotting more examples on Yabla English, try to make your own sentences with the following modal verbs and suitable tag questions with "can"/"can't," "could"/"couldn't," "should"/"shouldn't" and "would"/"wouldn't."
A few more examples:
We can wait a few more minutes, can't we?
He wouldn't forget about it, would he?
In the previous lessons, we saw how a regular verb conjugates into the past tense and past participle by simply adding -ed to the end of the infinitive: ask/asked, talk/talked, watch/watched, etc. Irregular verbs, on the other hand, each follow their own set of rules of conjugation. There are, however, some basic patterns that can help you remember how to conjugate some of these irregular verbs.
Some verbs with "ea" as the central vowels may (or may not) have an added -t at the end in past and past participle forms, but all of the past and past participle forms have in common that the "ea" is changes pronunciation. "I am reading a book" (pronounced "reeding"), but "I have read a book" (pronounced "red").
Many of the challenges that we are trying to tackle
can't be dealt with by individuals [sic] companies alone.
Captions 29-30, The British Monarchy - Global Sustainability
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You can finally live the life you always dreamt of.
Caption 10, Movie Trailers - Bruce Willis - Surrogates
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I meant what I wrote, shall we meet?
Caption 1, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - BBC TV Movie
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The father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people.
Caption 84, Barack Obama's Inauguration Day - Obama's Speech
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In all of the cases above, the present tense verbs "deal," "dream," "mean," and "read" have the long "ee" sound like "reed", but change in the past and past participles to the short "e" sound like "red."
Further Learning
Go back to the lessons for Irregular Verbs Part 1 and Part 2 and review some of the patterns that can help you learn English irregular verbs. Find examples of the verbs listed above in their past and past participle forms and learn them by searching for examples on Yabla English to see them used in a real-world context.