Prsentation PowerPoint

Grammar class two - tags

1Opening test

If you think that question tags are too easy and you already know all this, make sure you can add a question tag to the following sentences. If youre not sure, you need this class!

If you prefer however, you can do the opening test at the end.

1) Better go,......................? 2) Lets start right away .....? 3) She hardly ever phones,......? 4) A bit boring, .....? 5) Nobody cares, ....?

2Question tags

The first class dealt with how to form questions. In this class you will learn or revise how to form question tags

(cant you?; isnt it?; mightnt there? etc.)

and when to use them.

3Question tags are essentially a feature of SPOKEN English. They are extremely common.

Sometimes books or teachers say that they are a way of translating Nest-ce pas. This is not entirely true because for every time you say Nest-ce pas in French, we use a dozen tags in English.

When to use them4Note that although we call them Question tags, in many ways they are not real questions. For example, they do not have an intonation which rises at the end, like many questions do. If you listen to radio interviews, especially informal ones, you will hear very many tags, and you will be able to judge the intonation.

(You can listen to interviews on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/index.shtml ) Intonation

5We are only going to deal in this class with the most common form of the tag. There are two other forms, interesting but not so common.

He can play the piano, cant he? They could have helped us out, couldnt they? Shes Italian, isnt she? There werent any computers, were there? Im the teacher, arent I? 6Hes coming soon, isnt he? You dont smoke, do you? Mike loves pizzas, doesnt he ?

and so on. 7How to form the most common type of question tag.

The process of forming a question tag is in theory quite simple 1) Find the first auxiliary verb in the sentence. 2) If there is no auxiliary, use the auxiliary do (sometimes called the dummy auxiliary) 3) Make the tag negative for a positive sentence and positive for a negative sentence. 4) Finish with a pronoun. 8Note that , as in many other structures, Be acts like an auxiliary.

Paris is exciting, isnt it?The special case of the verb to beNote 19The irregular tag for am is arent Im the best, arent I? Im the person who thought of it first, arent I?An irregular tagNote 210Note 3There counts as a pronoun, as in many other structures.

There will be seventeen of us, wont there? There wasnt enough, was there ? What about there ?11A fairly simple and short introductory exercise is available on http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/question_tags.htm Try this introductory exercise12Why does it sometimes seem difficult?Naturally, it can sometimes appear to be more complicated if

1) You have difficulty identifying the auxiliary verb. OR 2) You are not sure if a sentence counts as positive or negative. OR 3) You are not sure what pronoun to finish with.131) Where is the auxiliary ?Look at the following and try to form the tag; I will give you the answers in a moment,

Exercise one The bossd rather we paid ourselves, .....? Better finish early, ....? Lets sleep instead, .... ? Idve eaten it anyway,.....? Go away, .......? 14Answer key:

The bossd rather we paid ourselves, wouldnt he?Better finish early, hadnt we?Lets sleep instead, shall we?Idve eaten it anyway, wouldnt I?Go away, will you? 15One reason for the difficulty is that the auxiliary verb is often hidden because the sentence is contracted :

Youd better go, hadnt you?

(You need to know that youd better is you had better).

Sometimes the auxiliary is hard to find!16Sometimes the auxiliary verb is omitted!In this sentence there appears to be no verb :

Terrible film, wasnt it? 17For imperatives, we use will you? informally or would you? a little more formally.

Pass the salt, will you? Sign here, would you? Come with me, would you? Get lost, will you?What about when we are giving orders or making requests?18Some sentences which are positive in form are considered to be negative because of their meaning.

Governments rarely admit mistakes, do they? He hardly ever (= presque jamais) sings these days, does he?

Are you sure whether its a positive sentence or a negative one?19What pronoun goes at the end?We often use they in the singular to tag indeterminate subjects.

Somebody phoned, didnt they? Nobody phoned, did they ? One of the students has made a mistake havent they ? Someone will help me, wont they? Anyone could have made that mistake, couldnt they ?

20A more difficult exercise and a good explanation can be found at

http://nadabs.tripod.com/qtags.html

Another wonderful exercise21Solution

Here is the solution to the opening test! There may be other possibilities, but the most likely are

Better go, hadnt we?Lets start right away, shall we?She hardly ever phones, does she?A bit boring, isnt it?Nobody cares, do they?

22Thats all for today!

The music was from the Chieftains23