Tense of the Verb in Question Tags

Dear Readers,

This is the concluding part of my posts on Question Tags . The English question tag baffles non-native learners of English because the English people conceive of their question tags as interrogative versions of the statement, cut short after the pronoun -subject . But in several languages of Europe and India the question tag is conceived in a different way . The set phrase in these languages is "isn't it?", the it in it refers to the fact contained in the statement .Example

She is a nice girl, isn't it ?

(isn't it a fact that she is a nice girl )

The English , on the contrary, use a truncated question as question tag

She is a nice girl, isn't she?

An important thing to note here is the tense of the auxiliary in question tags . It varies according to the tense of the verb in the statement . Note these examples

1 She was a charming girl, wasn't she ?

2 He will come tomorrow, won't he ?

3 She has finished her job, hasn't she?

4 They are watching television , aren't they?

5 He returned home yesterday, didn't he ?


Enough for Tag Questions! Iwill continue the discussion in my next post

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