QUESTION TAG

Question tags are short addition to sentences, asking for agreement or confirmation. It will be of no sense without a preceding statement.

Structure:
Statement (S+ V+ O), aux + (n't) + pronoun?
Or
Statement (S+ V+ O), aux.+ pronoun + not?

Example:
a. I am a graduate student, aren't I/am I not?
b. Karen plays the piano, does he not? doesn't he?

An affirmative statement has a negative tag and a negative statement has a positive tag.

However, the statement introduced by so has the same polarity tag (positive tag for positive statement & Neg. Tag for Neg. Statement)

Example:
So you're not going out today, aren't you?


⮚ The verb of the statement changes in the following ways:

Statement	Tags
is	isn't ......... ?
is not	is..........?
am	aren't I/am I not
am not	am I?
was	wasn't ..........?
can	can't..........?
well/shall	won't/shan't..........?
have/has/had	didn't/ don't/ doesn't..?
has	doesn't........?
have/has/had+ V3	haven't/hasn't/hadn't....?
have/has\had+ to V1	doesn't/didn't....?
's + noun	isn't..........?
's + ing isn't.........?	isn't.........?
'S + been + V3 hasn't?	hasn't?
'd + V1	wouldn't........?
'd + rather/ sooner	wouldn't........?
'd + have + V3	wouldn't.......?
'd + better	hadn't........?
'd + have + V3	wouldn't.......?
Let us/ him	will you?/ won't you?
Let's	shall we?
needs/needed	doesn't.....?/didn't........?
dare/ dares	don't.......?/ doesn't........?
dared/ used to	didn't........?
would	wouldn't........?
ought to	shouldn't......?
may	mayn't.......?

⮚ The statements containing words, such as neither, nor, no, not, none, little, few, only a little, hardly, scarcely, barely, rarely, nothing, nobody has a positive tag.
Example:
She hardly manages her time, does she ?


⮚ The subjects of the statements change into the following ways:

Subjects of the statement	Pronouns of the tag
Somebody/ Anybody/ These/Those/ Nobody/ Everybody/ Someone/ Everyone/ All	They (plural verb)
Something/ Anything/ Everything/ Nothing/ this/that/All	It
One	One
There	There (She/ he/ It/ They)
That clause/Gerund/to–infinitive	It
Some of/Any of/ None of +us/you/ them	We/ you/They
Neither… nor/ Either…or	2nd pronoun is followed in a tag.
Noun/pronoun + as well as/ with/ accompanied by + Noun/pronoun	First pronoun/noun is followed.
The + Noun+ and+ Noun (single person)	He/ She (singular pronoun)

Note: If there are two verbs and two subjects in the sentence, the second pronoun and second verb of the main clause is used in tag.
Examples:
a. I promise she won't be late, – will she?
b. There are two books on the table, aren't there/aren't they?
c. The poet and philosopher is dead, isn't he?
d. He as well as I put it there, didn't he?
e. Neither you nor she is Laborious, is she?

⮚ You and I as a subject in the statement
takes 'we' in the tag
Example:
You and I are good players, aren't we ?

⮚ You and he as a subject takes 'you' in the tag.
Example:
You and he were farmers, weren't you ?

⮚ If there are such clauses at the beginning of long sentences, we should use the tag for the second clause. Clauses: I think, I suppose, I know, I hope, etc.
Examples:
I suppose he has done it before, hasn't he ?
I think they are good at English, aren't they?

Also, Read our other Notes of English for Entrance Exams:

1. Article
2. Connectives
3. Number
4. Concord
5. Tense Use
6. Causative Verbs
7. Conditional Sentence
8. Voice
9. Reported Speech
10. Transformation
11. Gerund / To-Infinitive
12. Sentence Pattern
13. Agreement & Disagreement
14. Inversion
15. Adjectives
16. Embedded Question
17. Illogical participle Modifiers
18. Preposition
19. Question Tag
20. Pronouns
21. Commonly Confused Words
22. One Word Substitution
23. Words of Comparision
24. Specialists
25. Phobias
26. Killing & Killers
27. Graphy Words