Epa Maricio Inbitene A Huna Rrumva

República Bolivariana de Venezuela
Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación
U.E Instituto María Montessori
San Cristóbal – Estado Táchira

Tag Questions and
Adjectives
Tag Questions and
Adjectives


San Cristóbal, 20 de octubre de 2012
A question tag or tag question is a grammatical structure in which a declarative statement or an imperative is turned into a question by addingan interrogative fragment (the "tag"). For example, in the sentence "You're John, aren't you? , the statement "You're John" is turned into a question by the tag "aren't you". The term "question tag" is generally preferred by British grammarians, while their American counterparts prefer "tag question".
In most languages, tag questions are more common in colloquial spoken usage than in formalwritten usage. They can be an indicator of politeness, emphasis or irony. They may suggest confidence or lack of confidence; they may be confrontational, defensive or tentative. Although they have the grammatical form of a question, they may differ from questions in that they do not expect an answer. In other cases, when they do expect a response, they may differ from straightforward questions in thatthey cue the listener as to what response is desired. In legal settings, tag questions can often be found in a leading question. According to a specialist children's lawyer at the NSPCC, children find it difficult to answer tag questions other than in accordance with the expectation of questioner.
Grammatically regular forms
In several languages, the tag question is built around the standardinterrogative form. In English and the Celtic languages, this interrogative agrees with the verb in the main clause, whereas in other languages the structure has fossilised into a fixed form.
Another grammatically regular tag is the simple question marker. In Polish, this is used in the negative, giving czyż nie?.
Grammatically productive tag forms
Grammatically productive tag forms are formed inthe same way as simple questions, referring back to the verb in the main clause and agreeing in time and person (where the language has such agreement. The tag may include a pronoun, such as in English, or may not, as is the case in Scottish Gaelic. If the rules of forming interrogatives require it, the verb in the tag may be an auxiliary, as in English.
Tag questions in English
English tagquestions, when they have the grammatical form of a question, are atypically complex, because they vary according to four factors: the choice of auxiliary, the negation, the intonation pattern and the emphasis.
Auxiliary
The English tag question is made up of an auxiliary verb and a pronoun. The auxiliary has to agree with the tense, aspect and modality of the verb in the preceding sentence. If theverb is in the present perfect, for example, the tag question uses has or have; if the verb is in a present progressive form, the tag is formed with am, are, is; if the verb is in a tense which does not normally use an auxiliary, like the present simple, the auxiliary is taken from the emphatic do form; and if the sentence has a modal auxiliary, this is echoed in the tag:
* He's read this book,hasn't he?
* He read this book, didn't he?
* He's reading this book, isn't he?
* He reads a lot of books, doesn't he?
* He'll read this book, won't he?
* He should read this book, shouldn't he?
* He can read this book, can't he?
A special case occurs when the main verb is to be in a simple tense. Here the tag question repeats the main verb, not an auxiliary:
* This isa book, isn't it?
(Not doesn't it? as the normal rules for present simple would suggest.)
If the main verb is to have, either solution is possible:
* He has a book, hasn't he?
* He has a book, doesn't he?
Balanced vs. unbalanced tags
English tag questions may contain a negation, but need not. When there is no special emphasis, the rule of thumb often applies that a positive sentence...