D-11.05 Get & Use Affirmative & Negative Tag Questions with All Kinds of “Auxiliaries”

Part Two of Chapter 2 (“Housing”) of WorkLife English Grammar 3: An Immigration Story, pages 28-31. / Part One of Chapter 5 (“Getting Help”) of WorkLife English Grammar 5: Language and Culture in Depth, pages 86-88.  / Lesson 8 of Chapter 1 (“Families”) of WorkLife English Grammar 6: Issues & Answers, page 23.  

8 pages

Who It’s For: (Self) Teachers & Helpers at (High) Beginning to Intermediate Language-Proficiency Levels & Beyond

Why It’s Useful: A (less critical) sub-topic of instruction in verb-phrasing is Tag Questions, (usually two) words (followed by question marks) that are added to statements to change them into interrogatives. These “mini-questions” mean something like “Isn’t that right?” or “Don’t you agree?”  A “question tag,” which is negative if the main verb is positive and vice versa, contains an auxiliary (like is[n’t], are[n’t], do[n’t], did[n’t], can[’t], will/won’t (or even have[n’t] or had[n’t] in “perfect tenses).  Its “subject pronoun” corresponds to the noun or pronoun subject of its main clause.

Here are excerpted portions of Parts of Chapters from three levels of WorkLife English Competency-Based Grammars.  

What You’ll Do: 

[1] In the 8-page Download, work on one one– to four-page segment at a time.  First, focus on Tag Questions while acting out its introductory Strip Story and/or looking over its boxed Grammar explanation with examples. Then complete relevant exercises: create sentences with tags by choosing or filling in missing words.  Answer the (tag) questions appropriately in the given contexts.

[2]  To improve the variability or sound of your linguistic style, include Tag Questions when suitable or meaningful, especially in friendly oral conversation.