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The English language has particular grammatical structures, which are used almost exclusively in oral communication, which are intended to obtain a corroboration or one immediate refutation of what is being said by the listener.
These structures are called question tags, which translated into Spanish would be something like "question tag"; since they function in terms of meaning in a way equivalent to a 'it is not true?' or a "right?" in Spanish. In all cases, question tags appear in the sentence preceded by a comma.
characteristics
These question tags they are located always as a closing of the sentence, and formally said prayer it is not interrogative but affirmative or negative, that is, affirms something or denies something. In this way, the question tag alone expresses the opposite of what was just said, as giving the interlocutor the opportunity to corroborate or deny what has been said, as the case may be.
To build these sentences with question tags it is necessary to know and handle the auxiliary verbs of the English language. As we know, it is fundamentally the verbs 'to do', 'to be' and 'to have' that provide the auxiliary element that is incorporated into the question tag.
These verbs go obviously conjugated in the person and the corresponding verb tense, and in turn appear in the affirmative or negative (the latter, adding the 'not') as required. Sometimes, 'can' or his past 'could' ('power') also appear as part of question tags.
The most common auxiliaries are:
- ‘Is’
- ‘Are’
- 'A.M'
- 'Was'
- 'Were'
- 'Will'
All these corresponding to verb to be'. They are also very common ‘Have’ and ‘has’ (‘to have’) Y 'Do / does' Y ‘Did’ (‘to do’).
The construction of the question tag
The construction is simple: the sentence is analyzed and apply the corresponding auxiliary in its opposite value, adding 'not' to it or removing it if it had it (it is also valid and in fact widely used in question tags the apocopated negative form ‘n’t’).
What is sought is ask if the opposite of what the sentence previously raised has happened, is happening or will happen. In a way, the question tag reveals the genuine doubt or anxiety on the part of the speaker to know immediately if he is right or not.
Other types ofquestion tags
There are two cases of question tags that deviate a bit from what has been explained:
- Prayers imperatives followed by the question ‘will + pronoun’, like someone who says in Spanish ‘will you do it?’ (in this case the other is expected to comply with the request).
- They include the expression ‘let us + verb’ in the sense of inviting to do something together with others. In these last communicative situations, it is usually added as question tag the structure 'shall we'?
We see in the following list sentences with question tags:
- You’re from Madrid, aren't you?
- He doesn’t speak French, does he?
- He should read this book, shouldn't I?
- He was the best in the class, wasn’t he?
- Your sister is in Buenos Aires, isn’t she?
- Open the door, will you?
- They didn’t go to class last week, did they?
- They bought a new car, didn’t they?
- She is going to marry soon, isn´t she?
- You aren’t sure about this point, are you?
- Let's play football tomorrow morning, shall we?
- At last he could find a job, couldn’t have?
- Jeff was not his teacher, was he?
- Penguins can't fly, can they?
- He will come, won’t have?
- Don’t go to miss the lesson, will you?
- He doesn’t swim, does he?
- You aren’t Brazilian, are you?
- He just wants to play, doesn’t have?
- Your friends wanted to go to the concert, didn’t they?
See also: Examples of interrogatives in English
Andrea is a language teacher, and on her Instagram account she offers private lessons by video call so that you can learn to speak English.
