Make up 10 questions with a tail. Dividing question with a “tail” in English (Tag Question)

To obtain information, it is important to formulate the question correctly. There are 5 types of different questions in English. One of them is a dividing one, which is asked in order to clarify something or to make sure one is right.

Why are separating questions needed in English?

Tag questions (or questions with a tail) are an integral part of everyday speech. In Russian, they correspond to the phrases “isn’t it”, “isn’t it true”, “yes” added at the end of a sentence. Sometimes the tail of a dividing question in English is not translated into Russian at all. This is relevant for requests, reminders to do something, including those with a negative connotation, for example:

Don’t phone me again, will you? ("Do not call me more").
Close the window, would you? (“Please close the window”).

Classic versions of questions with a tail allow you to ask your interlocutor about something, get an affirmative or negative question. At the same time, dividing questions in English differ from general questions in the way they are formed, intonation and purpose. But the answers to them may coincide.

It’s bitter cold today, isn’t it? - Yes, it is. (“It’s very cold today, isn’t it? - Yes”).
You have done your homework, haven’t you? - No, I haven’t. (“You did your homework, right? - No”).

If in the second case it was possible to ask a general question, although it would be less polite, then in the first case it is inappropriate: the speaker himself knows perfectly well what the weather is like.

How tag questions are formed

The first thing to understand in forming this type of question is that if the phrase is affirmative, the tail will be negative and vice versa. Simply put, if the verb did not have a negation before the comma, it will appear after the comma. And if there is not next to the verb, it will disappear in the second part of the question.

Of course, dividing questions are constructed taking into account the tense form of the predicate. The easiest way to understand this is with the forms of the verb to be. It should also be noted that any noun acting as a subject is replaced in the tail with a similar personal pronoun.

George is a doctor, isn’t he? ("George is a doctor, isn't he?")
Your parents were in Spain last summer, weren’t they? (“Your parents were in Spain last summer, right?”)
Mary will be ten in two weeks, won’t she? (“Mary will turn 10 in 2 weeks, won’t she?”)

When the predicate contains (read, sleep, drive), you first need to determine the time of the sentence. Endings will help do this (-s in the present tense in 3rd person singular forms; -ed in regular verbs in the past tense). If the verb is difficult to identify, it means that it is used in the 2nd or 3rd form in the sentence; you need to look for it in the table of irregular verbs.

For a negative tail in the present tense you will need the auxiliary verb do or does; in the past tense, respectively, did.

Another nuance that allows you to quickly master the dividing question in English is to pay attention to the number of words in the predicate before the comma. If there is only one verb (but not a form of the verb to be), the do/does/did helper will be needed in the tail (as in the examples above). If there are two or three verbs, the tail will be formed with the first of them. The latter case includes both complex tenses (future, present continuous, past continuous, all completed tenses) and the use of modal verbs. The same is true for the negative first part, when the tail will be positive. For example:

This businessman has made a lot of money, hasn’t he?
Your brother can climb a tree faster than others, can’t he?
You aren't going for a walk today, are you?
His sister doesn’t like basketball, does she?

Complex use cases

These include the imperative mood, sentences with a negative adverb or pronoun, and some exceptions. When faced with them, you need to substitute a certain verb in the tail, which does not always correspond to the predicate from the first part.

In the imperative mood, sentences begin immediately with a verb, including Let's or negative Don't, they are addressed to the interlocutor/s, so there will always be a pronoun in the tail you, and in the case of Let’s - we. For example:

Listen to your teacher attentively, will you? (“Listen carefully to the teacher”).
Don’t be late, will you? ("Do not be late").
Let's go out tonight, shall we? (“Let’s go somewhere today”).

Pronouns nobody,none,few,notmany,nothing,little,neither,hardlyany,scarcelyany have a negative meaning, which means that in sentences with them after the comma the verb will be in the affirmative form, as well as in the predicate itself (the rule of one negation). The presence of one of the negative adverbs ( never,rarely,scarcelyrarely,nowhere,hardlyBarely) similarly requires a positive ending to the question.

Revolutions starting with There..., keep this word in the tail after the auxiliary verb. Finally, after Iam aren't I required at the beginning of the sentence?

The role of intonation

Its exact meaning depends on the intonation with which the dividing question is asked. If the tone of voice rises at the end of a question, the speaker is unsure of the information and wants an answer. If the intonation is downward, a simple confirmation of the voiced thought is required; often such questions are asked in order to maintain a conversation.

How are answers to dividing questions constructed?

Before giving a response, you have to analyze the question itself, without a tail: a positive or negative first part requires different answer formulas. The simple option, when the speaker uses the affirmative form of the predicate, requires the same Yes and No as in answers to a general question. Next comes the pronoun corresponding to the object of the question and the auxiliary verb.

It is a little more difficult to answer partition questions in English when the first part is negative. Agreeing with the speaker, the answer should begin with Yes; disagreeing - with No. Next is a pronoun and an auxiliary verb. For example:

Karen is a good tennis player, isn’t she? - Yes, she is (agreement).
We can take a car, can’t we? - No, we can’t (disagreement).
He didn’t return the book, did he? - No, he didn’t (consent).
It doesn’t rain often here, does it? - Yes, it does (disagreement).

It is impossible to ignore dividing questions when studying English. Exercises, for example from textbooks, and constant practice will help you overcome the difficulties associated with this grammatical phenomenon.

We continue to talk about tag questions, dividing questions, and continue to go into the wilds and dive into the depths. The basic grammatical structures have already been discussed, but there are still a few cases that are worth paying attention to.

Sentence with negation. It will never be the same, … ?

A sentence with negation is not only don't, isn't and others wouldn't- but these are all kinds of never, nowhere, no one - no, never, nothing etc. Accordingly, tag in these cases must be positive:

You have nothing to declare, do you? You don't have anything to declare, right?
We have never done anything illegal, have we? We never did anything illegal, right?

Moreover, this includes not only “never and with no one,” but also such adverbs as rarely, rarely, hardly and many others meaning “rarely” and “barely.”

I hardly know you, do I? I barely know you, right?
They rarely visit their grandmother these days, do they? They rarely visit grandma now, don't they?

Dividing question to there is

There is may lead to some confusion - the subject here, apparently there, but what pronoun should I use? In this case, the pronoun there is from the phrases there is, there are doesn't change anything, it stays that way there.

There is something about this guy, isn’t there? There's something about this guy, isn't there?
There is nothing to talk about, is there? There's nothing to talk about here, right?

Question for "let's go." Let's do it, ... ?

First, let's understand the English "let's." Let's is let us, so the pronoun in the tag question is we. And with a verb (don’t look for a logical explanation for this, it just happened that way) – shall. And the whole thing will always look like “ shall we?»

Let's get wasted, shall we? Let's get drunk, shall we?
Let’s never talk about it ever again, shall we? Let's never talk about this again, okay?

And here it is shall we? You can safely take it out of context and use it as a polite invitation, adding a verb if necessary: shall we dance?(let me invite you to dance, madam), shall we?(Well, gentlemen, let's start our meeting already). Let's continue shall we?

First person question. I am a student, … ?

How to put the tag question to be in the first person, singular? We have all heard about isn’t and aren’t, but we have never heard about amn’t - and rightly so, we have not heard of it, because there is definitely no such option. But ask a dividing question with I possible in three ways:

ain't I? ain’t is such a very, very colloquial form that is almost never mentioned in any textbooks, but exists perfectly in colloquial speech and songs.
am I not?- grammatically perfect, but sounds a little “dramatic”, all you have to do is stand in an actor’s pose and raise your hands to the sky. I am indeed a prince of Denmark, am I not? Am I the Prince of Denmark or not?
aren't I?- the most common form. Yes, grammatically it “doesn’t fit into any corners” and you’re unlikely to see it in academic grammars, but that’s exactly what ordinary Americans would say

How to answer a dividing question

Now let's move to the other side of the dialogue - how to answer the tag question? For example, to the question “ You are from Russia, aren’t you?» Should I say “yes, from Russia” or “no, from Russia”? What if there is a negation in the main sentence? " You aren't a spy, are you?- “Yes, not a spy” or “No, not a spy”...

Answer the main part of the question (not the tag), whether it contains a negation or not - always as if there were no particle not. Namely:

You are from Russia, aren’t you? You – are – from Russia. That's right, from Russia. Yes, I am.

You aren't a spy, are you? You – are – a spy(ignore not). No, no, no, not a spy, it’s just that everything here is so interesting, I want to know about everything... No, I'm not.

The Earth is rotating around the Sun, isn’t it? Yes it is.
You haven’t eaten all the cookies, have you? No, I haven't. Maybe it has been stolen by raccoons…

Dividing question for requests

Another, rather rare way to use tag questions is to make your request a little more polite. Just add at the end can you, can’t you, will you, won’t you, would you:

Pass me the bottle, can you? Pass the bottle, please.
Don’t forget the secret passcode again, will you? Please don't forget the secret code, okay?

Dividing question without inversion

And finally, a comment for advanced students. Sometimes, in moments of great surprise, excitement, anger, etc. The verb in a tag question is not inverted.

Oh my god, you are getting married, are you? Lord, you're getting married, right?
So you never stole my money, didn’t you? So you didn’t steal my money, as I understand it?

Well, perhaps that’s all about separation issues. Good luck.

In the case when the speaker wants to receive confirmation of a fact or his words, wants to find out whether the interlocutor agrees with him, expresses bewilderment or doubt, the so-called. dividing question (Disjunctive Question or Tag Question).

In Russian, in these cases, sentences are used with the phrases “isn’t it true?”, “isn’t it?”, “yes?”, “right?”, “isn’t it true?” and so on.

Unlike other types of English questions, which are characterized by reverse word order, a dividing question in its first part retains direct word order, that is, it looks like an ordinary declarative or negative sentence. Only in the second part the word order will be reversed - as in the question.

The second part of the disjunctive question consists of an auxiliary (or modal) verb, grammatically corresponding to the first part, and equivalent to the subject pronoun (the table - it, my friends - they, etc.).

In this case, the following principle is observed: If the first part of the question is an affirmative sentence, then the auxiliary (or modal) verb in the second part will be in a negative form (usually in an abbreviated form). And, conversely, if the first part of the question is negative, the verb in the second part will be in the affirmative form.

He is a chemist, isn't he? - He's a chemist, right?
He isn't a chemist, is he? - He's not a chemist, right?
You like fish don't you? - You love fish, right?
You don't like fish, do you? - You don't like fish, do you?

A question with an affirmative first part (and, accordingly, a negative second) is used when the speaker expects to receive an affirmative answer. If a negative answer is expected, the first part will be negative, and the second part will be affirmative.

It should be remembered that dividing questions containing in the first part the words nothing, nobody, no one, no, neither, never, scarcely, hardly, barely etc., will be negative, so their second part must be affirmative:

So, they did nothing, did they? - So they didn't do anything, right?

In dividing questions with a revolution, the pronoun in the second part is there:

There is a toilet on the train, isn't there? - There is a toilet on the train, right?

In dividing questions with the words anybody, anyone, these, those, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one, nobody, the pronoun in the second part is they.

Everybody knew it, didn’t they? - And everyone knew about it, right?

Attention: For everything the pronoun is it.

In colloquial speech, the rule of grammatical correspondence between the first and second parts of a dividing question may be violated. Thus, the negative second part usually contains the verb in an abbreviated form: isn't, aren't, don't, can't, haven't, etc. Since am not has no abbreviation, either the full form is used with the pronoun I (Am I not?), or (much more often) the form aren't I?

I am late, am I not? - I'm late, right?
I am late, aren't I? - I'm late, right?

A disjunctive question can take the form of a request, a proposal, or a prohibition (see also Imperative). In this case, if the first part is affirmative, the second can contain the following forms (both affirmative and negative): will you?/won’t you? can you?/can’t you? could you?/couldn't you?

Be quiet, can't you? - Be quiet, okay?

If the first part is negative, the second part usually uses the form will you?

Don"t touch this, will you? - Don’t touch this, okay?

In dividing questions expressing an invitation to some action and beginning with let's, the second part uses the form shall we?

Let's go to the theatre, shall we? - Let's go to the theater, shall we?

When the speaker really does not know the answer and wants information, the second part of the disjunctive question is pronounced with a rising tone. If only confirmation of a fact or the words of the speaker is required, the second part of the question is pronounced with a lower tone.

In writing, the second part of the separating question is separated by a comma.

The second part of the separating question can be a separate sentence, when the interlocutor simply asks again: “Yes?”, “Really?” etc. In this case, a statement corresponds to an affirmative question, and a negation corresponds to a negative question:

I like snakes. - I love snakes.
- Do you? - Is it true?
I haven't seen this film yet. - I haven't watched this film yet.
- Haven't you? - Really?

The answer to the dividing question is based on the following principle. If the first part of the question is affirmative, then Yes will mean agreement, and No will mean disagreement. If the first part of the question is negative, then No will mean agreement, and Yes will mean disagreement. For example:

You like vegetables, don't you? - You like vegetables, right?
- Yes, I do. - I really love (agreement) / No, I don't - On the contrary, I don’t like (disagreement).
You don"t like vegetables, do you? - You don’t like vegetables, right?
- No, I don"t - I really don’t like (agreement) / Yes, I do. - On the contrary, I love (disagreement).

A dividing question in English is asked when you need to check some assumption, get agreement or disagreement with your thought.

A dividing question is also called a tag question.

It consists of two parts.

The first part is a regular affirmative or negative declarative sentence.

The second part of the question is a short general question that consists of a pronoun and a modal or auxiliary verb. The second part is entered separated by commas. The modal or auxiliary verb is part of the predicate from the first part and is necessarily the opposite of the verb from the first part. That is, if the first part is affirmative, the second is negative, and vice versa.

You always do your homework, don’t you? (You always do your homework, don't you?).

He is polite, isn’t he? (He's polite, isn't he?).

The second part of a dividing question in English (or the tail) is always translated “isn’t it?”, “isn’t it?” "it is so?".

If the verb to be is in the 1st person singular. number, if the interrogative part is negative, then not the am not form will be used, but the aren’t form.

I'm so reckless, aren't I?

I am strange, aren’t I?

However, if the interrogative part is positive, then the am form is used.

I am not like that, am I? (I'm not like that, am I?).

I am not a real man, am I? (I'm not a real person, am I?).

The tail may also not translate in the usual way. In Russian it corresponds to the occurrence of the word “after all”.

You have already done your work, haven’t you? (You've already done your work, right?).

In the interrogative part, the subject of the statement is always represented by the corresponding pronoun.

My guests and Pitt are at home now, aren’t they? (My guests and Pete are home now, right?).

In Present Simple tense, if there is no auxiliary verb in the main part, then the “tail” will use the verbs do/does.

He speaks English, doesn’t he? (He speaks English, right?).

We often play with them, don’t we? (We play with them often, don't we?).

In the Past Simple tense, if there is no auxiliary verb in the main part, the tail will use the verb did.

He went to the shop last night, didn’t he? (He went to the store last night, didn’t he?).

They stayed with you yesterday, didn’t they? (You had them yesterday, didn't you?).

In Continious tenses, the interrogative part uses the corresponding form to be.

They are playing in they yard, aren’t they? (They play in the yard, don't they?).

My friend isn’t calling him, is he? (My friend doesn't call him, does he?).

In Perfect tenses, the verb have/had is used in the interrogative part.

You haven’t seen him for ages, have you? (You haven't seen him in ages, have you?).

His friends hadn’t come here before, had they? (His friends haven’t come here before, have they?).
How to answer a question correctly

How to answer a dividing question in English? Since the one who asks the dividing question wants to receive confirmation or denial of his thought, the answer should be short: yes or no.

If the first part is affirmative, then the confirmation contains Yes and the negation contains No.

He will answer my question, won’t he? – No, he won’t. (Will he answer my question? No, he won’t).

My friends are nice, aren’t they? – Yes, they are. (My friends are cute, aren't they? Yes, they are cute).

If the first part is negative, then agreement contains No, and disagreement contains Yes.

These people won’t understand me, will they? – No, they won’t. (These people won’t understand me, will they? – Yes, they won’t understand.)

His father isn’t vey kind, is he? - Yes, he is. (His father is not very kind, is he? No, he is kind).

Intonationally, the first part of a dividing question in English is pronounced with a falling intonation, and the interrogative part is pronounced with a lowering tone.

Incentive disjunctive questions that begin with the word Let's require a "tail" Shall we.

Let's go to the cimena, shall we? (Let's go to the movies, okay?).

Interrogative sentences calling not to do something have a tail - will you.

Don’t play with that boy, will you? (Don't play with that boy, okay?).

Questions starting with let me/him etc have a tail - will you or won’t you.

Let me help him, will you? (won’t you?) (Let me help him, okay?).

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You and I already know the formation and the main cases of using dividing questions. At first glance, everything is simple: the affirmative first part is the negative second and vice versa. However, we remember that we are dealing with English grammar, where there are always exceptions and even in simple things there are so many nuances that you can easily get confused, so we will begin to study the features of dividing questions, moving from simple to more complex.

Intonation

The meaning of the dividing question is largely depends on intonation. The affirmative part is usually pronounced with a falling tone. And the intonation of a short question can be rising or falling.

If the speaker is confident in the statement, tag (tail) also pronounced with falling intonation. If the speaker doubts the information in the first part, the intonation is rising. The second case is typical for sentences with the same affirmative or negative form in both parts.

Unusual dividing questions

Sometimes (and quite often!) native speakers use same shape (positive or negative) in both parts of the dividing questions. Why? The fact is that the same form of the auxiliary verb in both parts can express surprise, interest, emphasis on new information, and can also be used to attract the attention of the interlocutor. Sometimes such proposals change their stylistic coloring and acquire a hint of irony.

Positive statement / positive tag	Negative statement / negative tag

Example sentences

You have been to the cinema this week, have you? You were at the cinema this week, weren't you? (new information) He is afraid of spiders, is he? He's afraid of spiders, isn't he? (surprise) You lost the match, did you? You lost the match, right? (irony)

1. How to correctly answer a negative dividing question?

If we confirm the information in a negative statement or agree with it, this will be expressed by a negative answer with a negative form of the auxiliary verb, disagreement - by a positive answer with a positive form of the auxiliary verb.

Example sentences

You don’t rememberhis phone number, do you?
- No, I don’t.
- Yes, Ido. You don't remember his phone number, do you? - Yes, I don’t remember.
- No, I remember. Mrs Priestley doesn't know your father, does she?
- No, she doesn’t.
- Yes, shedoes. Mrs. Priestley doesn't know your father, does she?
- Yes, he doesn’t know.
- No, he knows.

2. Disjunctive questions in the first person singular

If in the first part the subject and predicate are expressed “I am” in the second part it will have the form "aren't I" , which is a little unusual.

Important!

There is no shortened form of amn't in English.

3. Dividing questions with the structure There is/are/was/were...

If a sentence begins with There..., it must also be used in the second part after the auxiliary verb.

Example sentences

There will be a problem, won’t there? There will be a problem, won't there? There are a lot of cars in the street, aren’t there? There are a lot of cars on the street, aren't there? There was a wage increase last month, wasn’t there? There was a salary increase last month, wasn't there?

4. Dividing questions with indefinite pronouns as the subject

If the subject in the affirmative part is expressed by the indefinite pronouns anyone, anybody, everybody, somebody, no one, nobody, in the second part they correspond to they. Accordingly, the form of the verb will change from singular to plural. The pronouns nothing, something, anything should be replaced with it.