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  • Asking questions in English is so

  • important for conversation and meeting

  • new people. I'm Emma from mmmEnglish and

  • in this lesson, I'm going to show you how to

  • use question tags correctly. Question tags

  • are really short questions that are put

  • onto the end of statements or regular

  • sentences, so that they become questions.

  • Question tags are mostly used

  • in spoken English and native English

  • speakers use them all the time. Now that

  • you know about them, you will hear them

  • all the time. Now, there's lots of

  • different types of question tags but

  • one great piece of news is that the

  • rules are kind of simple to learn.

  • There's a couple of exceptions but

  • generally the rules are pretty clear and

  • simple. So, let's get started!

  • So, what are question tags? They are questions but

  • they use a different structure to

  • regular questions. They're a short

  • question that we put on the end of a

  • sentence or a statement. Here's a regular

  • question: "Are you coming to the party?"

  • Here's a sentence: "You are coming to the party."

  • And here's a question tag: "You are

  • coming to the party, aren't you?"

  • Suddenly, we've got a question!

  • So let me show you how to

  • use question tags. It's simple! You take

  • a statement: "They are coming." And then you add

  • your question tag: "aren't they?"

  • Got it? You'll see patterns

  • between the main statement and the

  • question tag. You'll see that the

  • subject needs to match the pronoun. The

  • auxiliary verbs need to be the same. Now,

  • in this example the statement is

  • positive. But if we change our statement

  • to a negative, watch what happens to the

  • question tag.

  • So, see that the statement

  • and the questions tag need to be

  • opposites. If the statement is positive

  • then the question tag is negative. If the

  • statement's negative then the question tag

  • is positive! So, pay attention to the

  • statement you need to know if it

  • positive or negative in order to make

  • your question tag correctly.

  • Next! If your statement

  • has a modal verb, like will or should

  • or could or can, then it follows the same

  • pattern. The modal verb needs to be in

  • the question tag!

  • Now, if the main verb is do or be or have and

  • notice that these are all verbs that can

  • also be auxiliary verbs. But if they're in a

  • sentence as a main verb then they can be

  • used in the question tag.

  • But there are a couple of rules

  • to remember when you're using question

  • tag with these verbs. Let's start with 'do'. So,

  • in positive English sentences, often we

  • leave 'do' out. We don't use it, we don't

  • include it in our sentence. It's not common

  • to say "I do like playing football." I would

  • just say "I like playing football." So, what

  • does that mean for your question tag?

  • Well, you have to pretend that it's there!

  • So, we would really say, "she cooks on Tuesday nights."

  • and our question tag would be "She cooks

  • on Tuesday nights, doesn't she?" There's also

  • an important rule to remember about the

  • 'be' verb as well. Let's look at this

  • statement:

  • Now, if we were to try to make a question

  • tag out of this statement then naturally

  • you would say "I'm flying to London

  • tomorrow, amn't I?"

  • You take the auxiliary verb from the main

  • statement and move it to the question tag

  • But this is WRONG!

  • Don't ask questions about this rule, it doesn't

  • make any sense! But when you have the

  • 'be' verb with the subject 'I' in the

  • statement then in the question tag, you

  • need to use 'are'. So, for this example, you would

  • say "I'm flying to London tomorrow, aren't I?"

  • now let's practice a few question tags

  • together. I want you to do the work now.

  • So, I want you to complete the sentences

  • with a question tag.

  • Nice work!

  • I bet you do really well then.

  • I hope that you enjoyed this lesson and if

  • you did please make sure you subscribe

  • to my channel. And if you would like to

  • keep watching some more of my video

  • lessons then, you can do it right there!

  • You can also connect with me on Facebook

  • or if you really want to keep practicing with

  • me then check out my website mmmenglish.com

  • and you'll find lots of

  • online courses and other lessons that

  • you can try out for yourself!

  • Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next lesson!

  • Bye for now!

Asking questions in English is so

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