Tag question

Tag questions or question tags are negative short questions used at the end of a positive statement or vice versa. Students should be encouraged to use these as they make conversation with native speakers smoother.

Some English teachers find that their own use of question tags starts to deteriorate after a few years in a foreign country and they need to be careful to maintain them.

Positive statement, negative tag
Example


 * It's nice here, isn't it?

Usage, encourage conversation.

Negative statement, positive tag.

 * You don't like beetroot, do you?

Usage, obtain a real response. The speaker believes that the listener doesn't like beetroot.

Positive statement, positive tag
Example.

You know the answer, do you? Usage, sarcasm. aggression. (Not recommend for students.)

General usage
Question tags are almost exclusively used in the spoken language or perhaps in quite informal written registers.

EFL students are sometimes confused whether a yes or no answer is appropriate; one way to help is to coach them to answer polar questions with subject and auxiliary instead of just a "yes" or "no".

One problem which non-native speakers have with question tags is the question of intonation which native speakers use to add meaning to their question tags. How many emotions can you put into a simple question such as: "We're not lost, are we?