Use a short question at the end

1 · Learn

A question tag is a short question added to a statement: 'You are ready, aren't you?' It can check information or invite agreement. Tags are common in conversation; choose them to suit the audience rather than treating conversation as incorrect English.

A common pattern pairs a positive statement with a negative tag, or a negative statement with a positive tag: 'She can swim, can't she?' and 'She cannot swim, can she?' Match the helping verb, tense and pronoun. If there is no helping verb in a simple present or past statement, use do, does or did: 'They arrived, didn't they?' There are other tag patterns in real speech; these are the ones practised here.

2 · Worked example

'Mira likes the story, doesn't she?' uses does because likes is simple present with a singular she subject. The negative tag is contracted to doesn't she. I place a comma before the tag and a question mark at the end. For 'Mira liked the story', I use didn't she to match the past tense.

3 · Your turn

Complete 'We have finished, ___?' and 'Omar did not call, ___?' Then rewrite the first as a direct question that could suit a formal checklist.

4 · Apply your learning

Write a short friendly dialogue using two different tags. Mark each subject and verb, check agreement, then rewrite the same information as direct questions for a clear written questionnaire. Read both versions aloud and discuss tone.