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Question tag
A question tag (/kwesʧən tæg/) is a tag clause added to the end of a statement to make a tag question.
A positive question tag consists of only an auxiliary verb and a pronoun. A negative question tag, in addition to having an auxiliary verb and a pronoun, has the word "not" for negation. They generally use the same auxiliary verb as the main statement. The polarity is generally reversed. There are two negative forms, a contracted form and an uncontracted form. It is the question tag that contains the grammatical marker that indicates the sentence is a question.
Most possible forms are given in the table below:
Verb form | Tense | Pronouns | Question tag positive form example | Question tag contracted negative form example | Question tag uncontracted negative form example | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
am | present | I | am I? | aren’t I? | am I not? | |
are | present | you, we, they | are you? | aren’t you? | are you not? | |
is | present | he, she, it, one | is he? | isn’t he? | is he not? | |
was | past | I, he, she, it, one | was he? | wasn’t he? | was he not? | |
were | past | you, they, | were you? | weren’t you? | were you not? | |
do | present | I, you, we they | do you? | don’t you? | do you not? | |
does | present | he, she, it, one | does he? | doesn’t he? | does he not? | |
did | past | All | did you? | didn’t you? | did you not? | |
have | present | I, you, we, they | have you? | haven’t you? | have you not? | |
has | present | he, she, it, one | has he? | hasn’t he? | has he not? | |
had | past | All | had you? | hadn’t you? | had you not? | |
can | present | All | can you? | can’t you? | can you not? | |
could | past | All | could you? | couldn’t you? | could you not? | |
will | present | All | will you? | won’t you? | will you not? | |
would | past | All | would you? | wouldn’t you? | would you not? | |
may | present | All | may you? | ?mayn’t you? | may you not? | The form "mayn’t" is rare. |
might | past | All | might you? | mightn’t you? | might you not? | |
shall | present | All | shall you? | shan’t you? | shall you not? | |
should | past | All | should you? | shouldn’t you? | should you not? | |
must | present | All | must you? | mustn’t you? | must you not? | |
ought (to) | present | All | ought you? | oughtn’t you? | ought you not? | |
dare | present | All | dare you? | daren’t you? | dare you not? | |
need | present | All | need you? | needn’t you? | need you not? |