Question tags – Structure

Question tags are short phrases that are added to the end of a statement, turning it into a so-called tag question. 

Tag questions have two parts, separated by a comma. 

he first part is an affirmative (e.g. It is…) or a negative statement (e.g It isn’t….). 

The other part is formed with an appropriate auxiliary verb (e.g. is, was, has) and a pronoun (e.g. he, she, it).

If the statement is positive, we add a negative (and contracted) question tag.

She accepted our offer, didn’t she?

If the statement is negative, we add a positive question tag. 

She didn’t accept our offer, did she?

If a proper noun (e.g. a name) is included in the statement, it should be replaced with a pronoun in a question tag. 

• They are going to employ more staff, aren’t they?
• You haven’t prepared the entire presentation by yourself, have you?
• John is an excellent manager, isn’t he?

Here are more examples: 

• We don’t have a meeting at 10 a.m., do we? 
• The report needs to be submitted by Friday, doesn’t it? 
• You’re working on the project, aren’t you?
• Lisa isn’t making any progress, is she?
• The Johnsons didn’t sign the contract yesterday, did they?
• You were attending the conference, weren’t you?
• He has completed the training, hasn’t he? 
• We haven’t received the payment yet, have we?
• She hadn’t prepared the presentation beforehand, had she?
• We’ll discuss it at the meeting, won’t we?
• The team won’t be working on the project over the weekend, will they?
• We can’t proceed without their approval, can we?
• We should review the proposal today, shouldn’t we?
• We couldn’t have achieved this without Ben’s help, could we? 
• You’re going to attend the conference, aren’t you?

In each example, the question tag matches the verb tense, structure, or modal verb used in the main sentence.