How to use Tag Questions?

To construct a tag question, append a mini-question or “tag” at the end of a declarative statement. This tag flips the polarity of the statement: if the statement is positive, the tag is negative, and if the statement is negative, the tag becomes positive.

For example:

• Positive statement with negative tag: “She can swim,” becomes “She can swim, can’t she?”
• Negative statement with positive tag: “He isn’t ready,” becomes “He isn’t ready, is he?”

The choice of auxiliary or modal verb in the tag depends on the verb used in the main sentence. If the main sentence contains an auxiliary or modal verb (like “is,” “have,” “can”), that verb is used in the tag. If the main sentence is in the simple present or simple past and does not use an auxiliary verb, “do” or its variations (“does,” “did”) are used in the tag.

Tag questions are a form of question that turns a statement into a question by adding a short question fragment (the “tag”) at the end. This tag, consisting of an auxiliary verb and a pronoun, mirrors the verb form of the main sentence and inversely reflects its positivity or negativity.

The structure depends on whether the statement is positive or negative; if the statement is positive, the tag is usually negative, and vice versa. Let’s Deep dive into the topic to learn about tag questions.