What are question tags? How do I use question tags correctly? Will question
tags make me sound more natural when I speak English? Yes!!!! In today's lesson I am
going to teach you how to use question tags correctly. We are going to look at:
the grammar, why we use question tags, and very importantly, the intonation.
I'm Arnel from Arnel's Everyday English. Let's begin. It's raining quite
hard, isn't it? Oh tomorrow we have that presentation, don't we? You don't like fish, do you? In
all three sentences, the little bits at the end: isn't it? don't we? do you?
Those are the question tags. And in writing, they are separated by a comma.
Now, how do we form question tags? We usually have a positive statement, and a
negative tag, like in our earlier example: it's raining quite hard isn't it? Positive
statement, negative tag. Or, a negative statement and a positive tag: you don't
Common mistake: We don't use question tags in a question. Do you speak English,
do you? That's not correct. Rule number one, let's start with: BE. Be is the most
common verb in English. It's like the king, the king of verbs. Am/are/is/was/were,
are all forms of BE. Be in the statement. Be in the tag. It is cold today, isn't it?
Positive statement, negative tag. Oh these chilies they're really spicy,
aren't they? Positive statement negative tag. That restaurant wasn't very good, was
it? Those flies were so annoying, weren't they? But what about: AM? As in I am. I'm
next, am I? We use aren't when we say I. I'm next,
aren't I? I'm the tallest here, aren't I? This brings me to another very important
point. With question tags, remember they're common in spoken English so we
contract. It's very uncommon to say: it's cold today, is it not? Contract those tags.
Rule number two: Auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary in the
statement, auxiliary in the question tag. You can play the piano, can't you?
What's my main verb? Play. What's my auxiliary? Can. We use can in the
question tag. You're working late tonight, aren't you?
What's my main verb? Working. What's my auxiliary? Are. Use are in the
question tag! We haven't seen Frank and Amy in ages, have we? Main verb? Seen. Auxiliary
verb? Have. Use have in your question tag.
Number three. Now, let's look at this statement:
Brian plays football. There's no BE and there's no auxiliary, we only have one
verb: play. What do I do? Use: do, does, or did. Brian plays football,
doesn't he? Your parents live in New York, don't they?
Okay, how are you feeling? Let's do a mini-review. Be in the statement, be
in the tag. Auxiliary in the statement, auxiliary in the tag. No auxiliary, no be,
use: do/did/does. Imperatives, number four. Come here, will you? Close a window, will
you? I know this is a lot of information but question tags are very common. I
guarantee 100% that when you're watching your next movie or TV program, you're
going to hear a question tag. Ninety nine percent ninety. So, grammar
is very important, but so is intonation. And intonation is very important when
using question tags. Now, what is intonation? Intonation is the way your
voice changes when you're speaking. Intonation really communicates emotion.
When we use question tags, there are two types of intonation. We have: rising
intonation and falling intonation. When we use rising intonation we are asking a
question, we need information because we don't know something.
But when the intonation falls, we are confirming information. It's not a real
question, we're asking for agreement.
You don't know where my phone is, do you? This clock is wrong, isn't it? You've been
to South Korea, haven't you? In these examples you can
hear the intonation rises, it goes up at the end, because I'm not sure, I'm asking
a question. Now if I'm not looking for information, I'm just confirming
information, the intonation falls. Rachel baked cookies for everyone. I know she's
such a nice lady, isn't she? Ah these cookies are awful. They're not
very nice, are they? It's cold today, isn't it? In those examples you can hear the
intonation falling, because the information is already clear, I'm
confirming it with the person I'm talking to. Great. Now, of course, you know
this, there are always exceptions in English grammar. But use the rules that
you've learned today and you'll be one step closer to sounding
like a native speaker. I hope you enjoyed watching today's video. Don't forget to
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