This week on our English blog, we’re going to talk about an English grammar structure called tag questions. For some reason, they’re not discussed very often in most grammar books, but they’re really common in speaking (So they should be in more grammar books, shouldn’t they?).

You probably haven’t heard the term tag question, have you? No? That’s OK because you’ve mostly likely heard or seen them and even used them before.

Let’s take a look!

But before we get started, it would help to know what tag* means. Tag actually has a lot of different (but related) meanings. The meaning we need to help us understand what tag questions are is this:  something small that contains extra information which is added or attached to something larger. One place you commonly see tags is inside your clothing. They’re the little labels** that tell you the size, what the clothes are made of, and how to wash them.

OK, so how, exactly, does that relate to grammar? 

Well, tag questions are very short questions that are attached to a sentence, and they add extra information to that sentence. That’s it!

Are you wondering when we’re going to look at some examples? You’ve already seen two of them. Did you notice the underlined questions in the first two paragraphs? Yup, those are both tag questions!

So, let’s get started on learning how to make tag questions. The good news is that all tag questions follow an overall formula, kind of like math. Good news? Yes! Because it’s a VERY easy formula, and you don’t have to be good at math to make tag questions. Honest.

Here’s the formula: 

If the verb in the sentence is positive (+), the verb in tag is negative (-).

If the verb in the sentence is negative (-), the verb in the tag is positive (+).

It’s easy, isn’t it?  It is, but there are some other things we have to keep in mind when we use tag questions. Let’s look at those now. 

Pronouns: All tag questions have pronouns in them, and there are two things to know.

1. If the subject of the sentence is a pronoun, use the same pronoun in the tag question.

She always works in the morning, doesn’t she?

You finished your project last night, didn’t you?

It wasn’t difficult to find my apartment, was it?

He was planning to travel to Thailand, wasn’t he?

2. If the subject of the sentence is a noun, replace it with a pronoun in the tag question.

Your neighbors are from Italy, aren’t they?

Kathryn and Alex are leaving tomorrow at 9, aren’t they?

Armando has studied French, hasn’t he?

Rosa can’t make it to the meeting, can she?

Verbs: The verb tense in a tag question is always the same as the verb tense in the sentence, so we need to pay attention to time/tense. However, we also need to think about whether it’s a simple verb tense (present or past), or if the verb tense includes a helping/auxiliary verb or a modal***. Let’s look again at some of the previous examples.  

1. Simple present and simple past can be made with ‘to be’ or with other verbs.

a.  When the verb is ‘to be’, use the same form of ‘to be’ in the tag question:

Your neighbors are from Italy, aren’t they?

It wasn’t difficult to find my apartment, was it?

b.  When the verb is NOT ‘to be’, use ‘do/does’ (present) or ‘did’ (past) in the tag question.

She always works in the morning, doesn’t she?

You finished your project last night, didn’t you?

2.  If the verb tense includes a helping/auxiliary verb, use that helping/auxiliary verb or modal in the tag question.

Kathryn and Alex are leaving tomorrow at 9, aren’t they?

He was planning to travel to Thailand, wasn’t he?

Armando has studied French, hasn’t he?

Rosa can’t make it to the meeting, can she?

It’s important to notice that when the tag question is negative, the verb and ‘not’ are ALWAYS contracted. For example, this is incorrect:  She was in class yesterday, was she not? The correct form is:  She was in class yesterday, wasn’t she?

Special Cases:  Even though tag questions follow a formula and some clear rules, there are times when they are a little different than what we might expect. 

1. With these words:  no one, someone, anyone and nobody, somebody, anybody, we use ‘they’ in the tag question.

Everyone was having a good time at the party, weren’t they?

Somebody is knocking at the door, aren’t they?

2. Remember we said that if the VERB in the sentence is negative, the tag question is positive? The tag question is also positive if the SUBJECT of the sentence is negative.

Nobody has found my keys, have they? (notice we use ‘they’ because of ‘-body’)

Nothing is bothering you, is it? 

3. When a sentence starts with ‘there is/was’ or ‘there are/were’, we also use ‘there’ in the tag questions because ‘there’ is being used as a pronoun.   

There are 20 students registered for the class, aren’t there?

There was a problem with the order for office supplies, wasn’t there?

4.a. When a sentence starts with ‘this’ or ‘that’, the pronoun we use in the tag question is ‘it’.

This has been a really great vacation, hasn’t it?

That is the way to the bus station, isn’t it?

4.b. When a sentence starts with ‘these’ or ‘those’, we use ‘they’ in the tag question.

These tag questions are interesting, aren’t they?

Those people at the table next to us at the restaurant were really rude, weren’t they?

Whew! Now that we’ve looked at HOW to make tag questions, let’s talk about WHY we use them because that would be good to know, wouldn’t it? There are two reasons why we use tag questions. We’ll use some new examples here.

The first reason speakers use tag questions is to ask for clarification. We want to know if our idea about the information in the sentence is correct, or if we have a clear idea. In other words, we are asking to be sure of something. Is what I said in the sentence true?

Sally is your cousin, isn’t she?

In this example, I want to confirm that Sally is your cousin. I’m pretty sure, but not 100% sure, about my idea.

Tom and Elaine won’t be able to come to the party, will they?

Here, I think that Tom and Elaine probably won’t be able to come to the party, but I want to clarify to be sure.

Something important to know (both for your listening and when you use tag questions yourself) is that when speakers use tag questions for clarification, they always use rising intonation**** on the tag question.

The second reason speakers use tag questions is to get agreement from the listener. In this case, we think our listener has the same opinion, and we want to confirm that. I have a point a view, and I’m pretty sure you have the same point of view.

But wait – these are questions, aren’t they? Why do we use tag questions when we want someone to agree with us? Yes, these are questions, but when speakers use tag questions to get agreement from listeners, they use falling intonation****.  That means these tag questions don’t sound like yes/no questions, and they don’t sound like the tag questions used to clarify. In fact, these types of tag questions sound like statements of fact, and they are often used to start conversations, especially as a way to chat with a stranger or someone we don’t know very well.

It was raining hard this morning, wasn’t it?

This means that I think the rain was really heavy this morning, I think my listener(s) will agree, and now we can talk about the rain and the weather in general. This could be said to someone I know or to a stranger.

Paulo seems upset today, doesn’t he?

In this example, my feeling is that Paulo looks upset, and it’s likely my listener(s) feel the same way. And maybe I’d like to discuss why, or if there’s anything we can do to help Paulo. This would be said to a friend or someone that I know well.

Now that you’ve learned all about tag questions, you’ll use them, won’t you? And if you have any questions, please post them in the comment section below!

*https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/tag

**https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/label

***https://www.grammarly.com/blog/modal-verbs/

****https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/1250/intonation

This week on our English blog, we want to talk about the question: What are parts of speech? We can think of parts of speech like different shapes of building blocks (like Legos*) that children play with. We use short blocks, long blocks, wide blocks, narrow blocks, etc. Each part of speech is like a different type of block. Let’s do a short introduction to the different parts of speech in the English language.

People, places, things and ideas are called nouns. 

Let’s look at an example. How many nouns are in this sentence?

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

Remember, we are looking for people, places, things or ideas. This sentence has many words, but it only has two nouns. Let’s underline them.

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

Fox is the subject. Dog is the object. They are both nouns.

Let’s try another one.

John and his loud cockatoo** live in New York, where they go for a walk in Central Park every day, and then they eat pizza while they both have daydreams about sailing around the world on a yacht.

Ok. Now we really have a lot of words, and we have more than two nouns. Let’s underline them.

John and his loud cockatoo live in New York, where they go for a walk in Central Park every day, and then they eat pizza while they both have daydreams about sailing around the world on a yacht.

Some of these nouns look a little different from the others. This is because they are proper nouns. Proper nouns are CAPITALIZED. Proper nouns are usually the names of specific people or places. In this sentence, we have John, New York and Central Park. The other nouns are called common nouns. Sometimes, though not always, you can recognize nouns because they may have an article (a, an, the) before them.

Let’s do an easy one now. Some words replace nouns. These words are called pronouns.

Let’s look again at the first example:

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

How many pronouns can you find?

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

That’s right! Zero! We only have nouns here.

How about the second example? We have:

John and his loud cockatoo live in New York, where they go for a walk in Central Park every day, and then they eat pizza while they both have daydreams about sailing around the world on a yacht.

We have the same pronoun repeated three times: they. Each time, this word replaces the nouns “John” and “cockatoo”. Let’s look at one more.

Lauren likes Humphrey. 

This sentence has two nouns. We can change the sentence:

She likes him. This sentence has two pronouns.

Let’s look at another part of speech: verbs. Verbs are action words.

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

Can you find the action word?

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

Yep, jumped.

Let’s look again at the second example. How many verbs can you find?

John and his loud cockatoo live in New York, where they go for a walk in Central Park every day, and then they eat pizza while they both have daydreams about sailing around the world on a yacht.

All the verbs in this example only have one word, but many times a verb will consist of more than one word.

Ok. Now let’s look at describing words, adjectives. Adjectives give us information about nouns. Let’s go back to the fox and the dog. What information do we have about the fox and the dog?

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

How many adjectives do we have?

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

Four! Two adjectives for each noun.

Let’s have a look at a new example and another part of speech, adverbs.

While I was sleeping soundly, I had a very scary dream about a monster that was chasing me extremely quickly.

Adjectives modify nouns. Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs and other adverbs. How many adverbs do you think are in the example?

While I was sleeping soundly, I had a very scary dream about a monster that was chasing me extremely quickly.

“Soundly” answers the question: how was I sleeping?
sleep=verb

“Very” answers the question: how scary?
scary=adjective

“Quickly” answers the question: how was the monster chasing me.                                                                    
chase=verb

“Extremely” answers the question: how quicky?
quickly=adverb

Next, we should look at a very horrible part of speech: prepositions. Prepositions often give us information about time, place and movement. Many times, prepositions involve connections between words.

The quick, red fox jumped over the lazy, brown dog.

Here, our preposition is “over”. This preposition is related to the verb “jump” and the noun “dog”.

How about John and his cockatoo?

John and his loud cockatoo live in New York, where they go for a walk in Central Park every day, and then they eat pizza while they both have daydreams about sailing around the world on a yacht.

Notice that all of the prepositions in this example have objects. 

Let’s look at two final parts of speech. One of them is conjunctions. Conjunctions connect words, phrases and clauses. There is a famous educational video about conjunctions.***

John and his loud cockatoo live in New York, where they go for a walk in Central Park every day, and then they eat pizza while they both have daydreams about sailing around the world on a yacht.

Here we have the conjunctions “and” and “while”. In this example, they both connect clauses. We will talk more about clauses in a later post.

Our last part of speech is interjections. Interjections are different because they are usually exclamations that don’t really connect to the other parts of speech. Interjections usually communicate emotions.

Ugh! Wow! Hey! Oh!

This has been a basic introduction to parts of speech. The more you read, the more you will begin to notice the parts of speech and identify them more easily. We will review parts of speech in an upcoming post. 

Keep reading in English every day!

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatoo

*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AyjKgz9tKg

Today, let’s look at something very scary. It’s called ‘passive voice’.

Before we look at it, let’s consider three ideas

1)  If you can understand active sentences, you can understand passive sentences. I promise.

2)  In the beginning, it is more important to be able to recognize and understand passive voice than it is to be able to write with passive voice

This is because:

3)  We only use passive voice when we NEED passive voice

And in the beginning, you should focus on using active voice, as active voice is more common.

Let’s have a look!

What is passive voice?

Passive voice is when the subject of a sentence receives the action.

Example:                    
The bank was robbed.

Subject: bank

Verb: rob

The bank didn’t rob someone. (in this sentence)

Someone robbed the bank.

Why do we use passive voice?

We use passive voice when:

We don’t know who the original subject is

Example:  The bank was robbed yesterday.

(we don’t know who robbed the bank yet)

Or

We want to focus on the original object

Example: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

(the person is focused on the play Hamlet instead of the author William Shakespeare)

Or

The original subject is obvious or not important

The man was arrested.

(we know that the police arrest people)

How do we form the passive voice?

Here is the good news: forming the passive voice is actually very simple. It’s like a math equation. If you can understand the equation, the you just adapt it for any situation.

We use:

The verb “to be” in the original verb tense

+

The past participle of the main verb

Example 1

Active Voice:

People eat sushi in Japan

Verb: eat

Verb tense: simple present

Passive Voice:

Sushi is eaten in Japan.

is

(“to be” in simple present)

+

eaten

(past participle of “eat”)

Example 2:

Active Voice:

Someone has stolen the Mona Lisa.

Verb= steal

Verb tense= present perfect

Passive Voice:

The Mona Lisa has been stolen.

has been 

(“to be” in present perfect)

+

stolen

(past participle of “steal”)

That’s it. Almost.

There is something important that we will explore in a later post, but here is the short version:

A sentence can only become passive if the verb in the original active sentence has an object.

Example 1:                 
He killed the cockroach.                   
The cockroach was killed.

Object? Yes. (cockroach)
So…(passive voice)

Example 2:                 
The cockroach died                          

Object? No. So…(no passive voice)

This has been an introduction. Later, we will explore more situations with passive voice and look more deeply into some situations where passive voice is not possible. For a review of this grammar check out this post that has a grammar quiz!

Try to recognize this grammar topic in your reading practice!

Talking about the future in English is not difficult, but like most areas of English, there are some important rules. If you are studying English, you will probably learn these rules slowly over time, but in many cases, you have probably heard the different forms from native speakers or from watching movies, television or streaming. Here is a short summary of the different ways to talk about the future in English, and the situations when you use these different methods:

Will vs. Be Going To

The first way that many English language students learn to talk about the future is to use the verb “will”.

The good news: using “will” is usually very simple: will + verb

For example:

I will be home soon.

Will you have time this weekend to hang out?

The bad news: we usually only use “will” in specific situations, such as:

Making promises:

I will help you this weekend.

I won’t forget to pick you up!

Talking about decisions that we make in the moment:

            -My car is having a problem.

            -I’ll give you a ride to class!

Making Predictions:

It will probably rain on Saturday.

They probably won’t win the game this weekend. Their coach is terrible!

Notice that sometimes we use the adverb “probably” when we make predictions with “will”.

Future Plans

One of the most common ways to talk about the future is to talk about future plans, but we do not use “will” for this. We use: “be going to + verb”

For example:

Tonight, I’m going to finish my paper.

Next month, we’re going to visit Japan!

I’m not going to be at school tomorrow. I don’t feel well.

Are you going to visit your parents this summer?

Present Progressive and Simple Present

We can also use the verb tense present progressive to talk about future plans:

For example:

Tonight, we’re having dinner at the sushi restaurant.

I’m not leaving until the rain stops.

Another method for talking about the future is to use the verb tense simple present to talk about schedule or timetables:

For example:

My plane leaves at 6pm.

What time does the store open?

Check out this post for a review of ways to talk about the future. One of the best things to do is to listen to native English speakers and how they use the different ways to talk about the future! Have fun!