Grammar class two - tags

1. Grammar class two - tags

2. Opening test If you think that question tags are too easy and you already know all this, make sure you can add a question tag to the following sentences. If you’re not sure, you need this class! If you prefer however, you can do the opening test at the end. 1) Better go,......................? 2) Let’s start right away .....? 3) She hardly ever phones,......? 4) A bit boring, .....? 5) Nobody cares, ....?

3. Question tags The first class dealt with how to form questions. In this class you will learn or revise how to form question tags (can’t you?; isn’t it?; mightn’t there? etc.) and when to use them.

4. When to use them Question tags are essentially a feature of SPOKEN English. They are extremely common. Sometimes books or teachers say that they are a way of translating “N’est-ce pas”. This is not entirely true because for every time you say “N’est-ce pas” in French, we use a dozen tags in English.

5. Intonation Note that although we call them “Question tags”, in many ways they are not real questions. For example, they do not have an intonation which rises at the end, like many questions do. If you listen to radio interviews, especially informal ones, you will hear very many tags, and you will be able to judge the intonation. (You can listen to interviews on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/index.shtml )

6. We are only going to deal in this class with the most common form of the tag. There are two other forms, interesting but not so common. He can play the piano, can’t he? They could have helped us out, couldn’t they? She’s Italian, isn’t she? There weren’t any computers, were there? I’m the teacher, aren’t I?

7. He’s coming soon, isn’t he? You don’t smoke, do you? Mike loves pizzas, doesn’t he ? and so on.

8. How to form the most common type of question tag. The process of forming a question tag is in theory quite simple 1) Find the first auxiliary verb in the sentence. 2) If there is no auxiliary, use the auxiliary “do” (sometimes called the ‘dummy’ auxiliary) 3) Make the tag negative for a positive sentence and positive for a negative sentence. 4) Finish with a pronoun.

9. Note 1 The special case of the verb « to be » Note that , as in many other structures, “Be” acts like an auxiliary. Paris is exciting, isn’t it?

10. Note 2 An irregular tag The irregular tag for “am” is “aren’t” I’m the best, aren’t I? I’m the person who thought of it first, aren’t I?

11. Note 3 What about « there » ? ‘There’ counts as a pronoun, as in many other structures. There will be seventeen of us, won’t there? There wasn’t enough, was there ?

12. Trythisintroductoryexercise A fairly simple and short introductory exercise is available on http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/question_tags.htm

13. Whydoesitsometimesseemdifficult? Naturally, it can sometimes appear to be more complicated if 1) You have difficulty identifying the auxiliary verb. OR 2) You are not sure if a sentence counts as positive or negative. OR 3) You are not sure what pronoun to finish with.

14. 1) Whereis the auxiliary ? Look at the following and try to form the tag; I will give you the answers in a moment, Exercise one The boss’d rather we paid ourselves, .....? Better finish early, ....? Let’s sleep instead, .... ? I’d’ve eaten it anyway,.....? Go away, .......?

15. Answerkey: The boss’dratherwepaidourselves, wouldn’the? Better finish early, hadn’twe? Let’ssleepinstead, shallwe? I’d’veeatenitanyway, wouldn’t I? Go away, willyou?

16. Sometimes the auxiliaryis hard to find! One reason for the difficultyisthat the auxiliaryverbisoftenhiddenbecause the sentence iscontracted : You’dbetter go, hadn’tyou? (You need to know that « you’dbetter » is « youhadbetter »).

17. Sometimes the auxiliaryverbisomitted! In this sentence thereappears to be no verb : Terrible film, wasn’tit?

18. What about whenwe are givingorders or makingrequests? For imperatives, we use “will you”? informally or “would you?” a little more formally. Pass the salt, will you? Sign here, would you? Come with me, would you? Get lost, will you?

19. Are you sure whetherit’s a positive sentence or a negative one? Some sentences which are positive in form are considered to be negative because of their meaning. Governments rarely admit mistakes, do they? He hardly ever (= presquejamais) sings these days, does he?

20. Whatpronoungoesat the end? We often use “they” in the singular to tag indeterminate subjects. Somebody phoned, didn’t they? Nobody phoned, did they ? One of the students has made a mistake haven’t they ? Someone will help me, won’t they? Anyone could have made that mistake, couldn’t they ?

21. Anotherwonderfulexercise A more difficult exercise and a good explanation can be found at http://nadabs.tripod.com/qtags.html

22. Solution Hereis the solution to the opening test! There maybeotherpossibilities, but the mostlikely are Better go, hadn’twe? Let’sstart right away, shallwe? Shehardlyever phones, doesshe? A bit boring, isn’tit? Nobody cares, do they?

23. That’s all for today! The music wasfrom the Chieftains