Speaking English - Tag Questions - How to express assumptions or comment on a situation

Hey, this is Alex, and welcome to this lesson on tag questions.

Now, this lesson is particularly useful if you're, you know, trying to improve your English speaking ability,

but there's also a fair bit of grammar involved in it.

So, let's look.

So, first of all, what is a tag question?

We use it, essentially, for three different reasons.

First of all, if you want to comment on a situation.

Secondly, if you want to get more information from someone,

or if you want to check information that you already believe to be true.

So, for example, we have a statement.

First of all, a tag question is composed of two parts as well.

A full statement, so that is Henry's car, which is a full sentence.

And the tag.

So, how you make the tag is, you look at the form of the verb "to be" here.

That is Henry's car.

Now, since this is in the affirmative and the positive, the tag switches to negative.

So, the negative of "is" is "isn't", right?

So, that is Henry's car, isn't it?

Okay, so, in this case, what we're doing is we're either checking the information that we believe to be true.

So, we think that is Henry's car.

But to check that, we would say, "That's Henry's car, isn't it?"

We're not 100% certain that it is.

We're checking the information or trying to get the information.

Okay, versus the second example here is, "It wasn't a nice day yesterday."

So, we have "wasn't", first of all, which is past, and it's also negative.

Okay, so, the positive, since we have the negative first, the tag has to be positive.

"It wasn't a nice day yesterday, was it?"

"Wasn't", "was".

Okay, so, in this case, are we checking information?

Are we getting information?

Or are we just commenting on a situation?

Well, this would be more of a comment on a situation.

Now, how we differentiate when we're commenting on a situation versus when we're trying to get information

is where we put the emphasis or the stress on the last word or on the last part of the tag question.

So, for example, "That is Henry's car, isn't it?"

So, you see my voice rises at the end as if I'm asking a question, I'm checking information, or I'm getting information.

Versus this example, "Listen to how I say this."

"It wasn't a nice day yesterday, was it?"

My voice went down at the end.

"Was it", "It wasn't", "Was it?"

"It wasn't a nice day yesterday, was it?"

It means that you're not sure, you don't know if it was a nice day, right?

So, what you want to do, if you just want to comment that it was a nice day, or, sorry, it wasn't a nice day,

your voice would go down at the end.

"It wasn't a nice day yesterday, was it?"

Okay, so let's do the last two here.

"You haven't seen my keys."

So, we have "haven't", again, negative, past participle, "my keys", "You haven't seen my keys, have you?"

Okay, here you're trying to get information, right?

So, your voice would go up at the end.

"You haven't seen my keys, have you?"

Versus "You haven't seen my keys, have you?"

I guess you could do it that way as well, but, again, that's more, you're trying to check, sorry, not check the information,

but, yes, you're trying to check the information.

I apologize, I stumbled there.

Okay, so the last one, "You're from Vietnam, aren't you?"

Or, "Aren't you?"

Depends how you put the emphasis.

Okay, I apologize, it's a little scrunched in there.

Okay, so, again, if you're trying to just comment on the situation, make sure your voice goes down at the end.

If you're trying to make a comment on the situation or get information from someone, make sure your voice goes up at the end.

So, this example, "You're from Vietnam, aren't you?"

If I say, "You're from Vietnam, aren't you?"

I'm trying to get information from the person, right?

Versus if I say, "You're from Vietnam, aren't you?"

At the end, you're kind of just trying to confirm something that you already believe to be true.

You're commenting that they are from Vietnam.

Okay?

Now, I'll be right back with an exception that actually deals with this.

Okay, so let's look at one more rule that involves the verbs "do" and "have."

So, you notice I have two sentences up here.

The first one says, "You have driven here before, haven't you?"

The second one says, "He has a car, doesn't he?"

So, you might be thinking, okay, this one has "have."

It ends with "haven't you," right?

So, you have the affirmative, meaning the tag has to be negative.

The negative form of the verb, which is "have."

"Have," "haven't," makes sense.

Here, you have, "He has a car, doesn't he?"

Okay, you have "has," "he has."

The negative should be "hasn't," right?

So, you might be thinking, "He has a car, hasn't he?"

Isn't that what it's supposed to be?

No, you use the verb "do," and I'll tell you why.

Here, you're using the present perfect tense.

"You have driven."

So, you have "have" plus the past participle, "have driven."

When you're using the present perfect, you keep the rules that I told you guys,

which is, if it's affirmative, change it to the negative.

Whereas, if it is said, "You haven't driven here before," it would be "have you," right?

So, if you have the present perfect, "haven't."

If you have simply the simple present, "He has," "He has a car."

There's no past participle here.

"He has a car," the tag has to be the verb "do," okay?

"Doesn't he," "He has a car, doesn't he?"

Okay, if you'd like to test your knowledge of these rules,

and these two in particular actually might seem a little tricky if you haven't used tag questions before,

but if you'd like to check your own knowledge, please go to www.engvid.com to check out a quiz.

My name is Alex McCarr. Take care.