When To Use And How To Use Tag Questions In English? Rules

Hello friends in this article we are going to discuss about how you can use Tag questions to sound more natural while speaking English.

When to use Tag Questions?

In English we often use Tag questions at the end of a statement, in order to confirm information, which we already think is true, or if we’re looking for some kind of agreement from the other person.

Basic rule for Tag question:-

To make Tag questions the basic formula for this is:

If you have a positive statement your tag question on the end will be negative Tag questions.

Some basic examples for positive statements with negative Tag questions:-

You’re a student, aren’t you?
She speaks English, doesn’t she?
They’re coming to the party, aren’t they?

If you have a negative statement the tag Section on the end should be positive Tag questions.

Some basic examples of negative statements with positive Tag questions:-

The boss isn’t very happy, is she?

You don’t have a car, do you?
He hasn’t graduated yet, has he?

How to use Tag Questions in English?

Let’s discuss specifically How to use Tag Questions in English?

Tag question with the Be Verb:-

The Be verb is the most used verb in English, and usually has Special rules compared to other verbs. The Be verb in English includes Am, Is, Are, Was, Were. When we use the be verb in a statement, we also need to use the be verb in the tag question.

For example:

You’re Indian, aren’t you?

Sorry you weren’t waiting for long, were you?
She wasn’t at work, was she?
He’s studying English, isn’t he?

When you’re asking tag questions about yourself, don’t repeat am in the question, instead you will change the Be verb here to ‘are’.

I’m giving my presentation today, aren’t I?
I’m the winner, aren’t I?

Tag questions in simple past or present:-

Let’s take Look at sentences that are in the simple present or simple past not using the Be verb, using any other verb. For these sentences you will use do, does or did.

You like pizza, don’t you?
She doesn’t live in India, does she?

He left the office already, didn’t he?
We have a big test tomorrow, don’t we?

Tag questions in the Present Perfect:-

If your sentence is in the Present Perfect then you need to use have or has in your tag question.

You’ve been to Canada, haven’t you?
She’s gotten a new job, hasn’t she?
He hasn’t failed the class, has he?

You haven’t seen this movie yet, have you?

Tag questions with Modal Auxiliary verbs:-

Auxiliary verbs are known as helping verbs in English. They include verbs such as can, could, will, must and should. When you use an auxiliary verb in a sentence and you want to turn it into a tag question, you just need to repeat the auxiliary verb.

You’ll help me, won’t you?

He shouldn’t drive so fast, should he?
He can play Football? Can’t he?
The police couldn’t find your wallet, could they?

Tag questions important tips:

There are two really important tips that you need to keep in mind about Tag questions.

The first thing is that take questions are used mostly only in speaking and when we are speaking because it’s casual to use Tag questions in our conversations, we will not use the full forms of the words in the tag questions.
Tag questions are usually used in speaking, if you are writing a tag question, make sure you put a comma after the main statement before the tag question.

So friends in this article you have learned how to use Tag questions in English. I hope you understand how to use Tag questions in English, if you have any question about this article you can comment below.