Short Question at the end of a sentence is referred to as Questions Tag.
- You are Nisha, aren’t you?
♦ Here, ‘you are Nisha’ is a sentence and ‘aren’t you’ is a Question Tag. As Question Tag is added to a sentence, the sentence becomes interrogative. To add Questions Tags in a sentence, certain rules are followed.
Rule1:
A Sentence and Question tag must be in the same tense.
- You’re Nisha, wasn’t you? (incorrect)
- You’re Nisha, aren’t you? (correct) [You’re Nisha and aren’t you should be in simple present tense]
- They went to the cinema, don’t they? (incorrect)
- They went to the cinema, didn’t they? (correct) [They went and didn’t they are in simple past tense]
Rule2:
A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag and a negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.
- Mary is from Spain, is she? (incorrect)
- Marry is from Spain, isn’t she? (correct) [positive statement –> negative question]
- Marry isn’t from Spain, is she? (correct) [negative question -> positive statement]
Rule3:
In negative Question Tags, the contracted form of ‘not’ is used with helping verbs.
- Marry is from Spain, is not she? (incorrect)
- Marry is from Spain, isn’t she? (correct)
♦ Negative Question Tag (helping Verb):-
is not ⇒ isn’t
am not ⇒ aren’t (imp) [I am late, aren’t I?]
are not ⇒ aren’t
did not ⇒ didn’t
was not ⇒ wasn’t
has not ⇒ hasn’t
have not ⇒ haven’t
had not ⇒ hadn’t
will not ⇒ won’t
shall not ⇒ shan’t
should not ⇒ shouldn’t
could not ⇒ couldn’t
cannot ⇒ can’t etc.
Rule4:
Question tags are always used with pronouns.
► aren’t you, do I, wasn’t it, haven’t they etc.
- Mary is from Spain, isn’t Mary? (incorrect) [in Question Tag Noun (Mary) is used which is incorrect]
- Mary is from Spain, isn’t She? (correct)