MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH

Before doing this activity you may need to read the text you will find at the end


  Fill in the Gaps
Question Tags: special cases
Focus Grammar
Description Practise making question tags with an emphasis on special cases.
Instructions Write the suitable words inside the gaps to complete the sentence with the correct question tag. Use the -TAB- key on your computer keyboard to move from one box to the next.
 
Gapped text
You never listen, ____________?
David has never been to Salamanca, ____________?
Shut up, ________________?
We can stay here for a while, ________________?
She's not talking to Peter, ____________?
There's a house on that hill, ______________________?
The doctor hasn't arrived yet, ____________?
Close that window, ________________?
Ronny lives near the sea, ____________________?
I've never been in your house, ____________?
Please, come for dinner tonight, ________________? I'd love to talk to you.
Mike must look after her little sister, ____________________?
You've got three sisters, ______________________?
Come here, ________________?
I'm not participating in that meeting, ________?
Let's stay at home and watch TV, ________________?
He'll come here first, ________________?
Do me a favour, ________________? Give this parcel to your sister.
I think you'd like to buy this one, ________________________?
You probably should call her, __________________________?
Well, I think I'm wrong, ________________?
Let's go to the cinema tonight, ________________?
Doctor, I'm very ill, ________________?
Have another cup of tea, ________________? I know you like it.
I'm not doing it correctly, ________?
When you go to the shop remember to get some sugar too. Don't forget, ________________?
There was a man at the party in a red jacket, ________________________?
Let's go and help him, ________________?
I think I am your teacher, ________________?
I am out of the game, ________________?
Total number of items: 30
This is an activity from Multimedia-English www.multimedia-english.com
 

GENERAL RULE

❶ Question tags always use a special verb
❷ The subject is always a pronoun, and it is inverted (because it is a question, of course)
❸ Affirmative sentences add a negative question tag and negative sentences add an affirmative question tag

 

SPECIAL CASES

I AM

The negative question tag "am I not" has no contraction. Because a question tag with no contraction sounds very pedantic, we prefer a very ungrammatical constraction but which is correct for question tags: "aren't I?"

- I'm late, aren't I?
- I'm talking to the walls, aren't I?
 
SUGGESTIONS

After a sentence with Let's... we use "shall we?"
 
- Let's go out for a walk, shall we?
- Let's study tomorrow morning, shall we?

IMPERATIVES & INVITATIONS

After an imperative we use "will you?" (always affirmative). We can consider "will you?" as an equivalent to "please" (more or less)
 
- Open the door, will you?
- Don't smoke in this room, will you?
- Come to my party, will you?
- Have a coffee, will you?
- Don't look at me like that, will you?

If there are two verbs in the sentence, the question tag may refer to one or the other, you must use your common sense here:

- I think you're John, aren't you? (= are you John?)
- I think you're John, don't I (= do I think...?)  [this would be correct but very rare]