Tag questions are something like negative questions, since they are used when someone thinks she / he knows the answer and wants confirmation.

There are two main types of tag questions–one for affirmative statements and one for negative statements.

Tag questions are also called “answer-presuming questions” or “confirmation questions” because we ask them when we think (presume) that we know the answer. (We want someone else to tell us if we are right or wrong–to confirm whether the answer that we think is correct is really correct.)

Examples:

• That question is easy, isn’t it?
• That question is easy, is it?
• He’s working hard, isn’t he?
• He isn’t working hard, is he?
• There’s a test tomorrow, isn’t there?
• There’s no test tomorrow, is there?
• He was angry, wasn’t he?
• He was angry, was he?
• He was watching TV, wasn’t he?
• He wasn’t watching TV, was he?
• There were many problems, weren’t there?
• There weren’t many problems, were there?
• This seems easy, doesn’t it?
• This doesn’t seem easy, does it?
• She worked yesterday, didn’t she?
• She didn’t work yesterday, did she?
• He left early, didn’t he?
• He didn’t leave early, did he?
• They’ve already finished, haven’t they?
• They haven’t yet finished, have they?
• She’s visited Paris, hasn’t she?
• She hasn’t visited Paris, has she?
• He’s been there a long time, hasn’t he?
• He hasn’tbeen there a long time, has he?
• They’d left when you arrived, hadn’t they?
• They hadn’t left when you arrived, had they?
• She can play violin very well, can’t she?
• She can’t play violin very well, can she?
• We should leave early, shouldn’t we?
• We shouldn’t leave early, should we?
• We’d better hurry, hadn’t we?

TEST

English test. Tag questions for Affirmative Statements

English test. Tag questions for Negative Statements