 Sun Sep 24, 2006 19:17 pm QUESTION TAGS |
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| Jesus1 wrote: | Hello! Just some questions about question tags.
Thanks in advance
1.- I am late, aren?t I?
I know that?s right.
But, I am not late, are I? No, the tag here should be: am I
2.- Shut the door, will you/won?t you? I'd only use will you. This isn't a simple tag that asks for confirmation because it adds the idea of willingness to and softens the command.
I am afraid both of them are possible, but I
can?t understand what the difference is
You'll shut the door, won't you?
3.- Do not run, will you/won?t you? Personally, I wouldn't say either one.
I'd say:
Please don't run. - OR -
You won't run, will you? - OR -
Don't run. OK? 
I am afraid both of them are right as well, but
I don?t grasp the difference either.
4.- Sometimes I find it difficult to choose between
a question tag and a comment tag.
I can not see the difference clearly.
For instance,
a.- You saw him, didn?t you? (I want to know yes or no)
b.- You say him, did you? (That's interesting/surprising.)
When the sentence is positive and the tag is negative (or vice versa) and the tag is the same verb, you are probably simply asking for confirmation: Is that true? Yes or no?
When you have a positive sentence along with a positive tag as in (b.), it's probably something else, and in your (b) sentence it sounds to me as though the person finds the fact that you saw him interesting or possibly surprising. So, the tag is used to indicate this.
What?s the difference?
Sentence tags are used in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. Wikipedia has an interesting article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question
Jes?s |
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
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