Appendix:English tag questions

Introduction
This section is about the grammar of tag questions in common English usage. Tag questions can be found in everyday speech and written verbatim records of conversations. The tag question is a way of checking the correctness of an assumption or statement, by asking the interlocutor for agreement, or clarification. Tag questions are often used simply as a kind of oil to keep the conversation running smoothly.

Tag questions are mainly used in spoken communication, and therefore the intended meaning of a tag question is strongly influenced by voice inflection. This appendix will also attempt to address this problem in a simplified way.

Affirmative–Negative
The basic form consists of an affirmative statement followed by the negative interrogative form of the appropriate auxiliary verb (or, in the case of "be" and sometimes "have", main verb).
 * You can play the piano, can't you?

Here the speaker believes the other person can play the piano, and is expecting the affirmative reply, and would find the negative reply surprising.

A more formal, or literary, form, little used in spoken English, uses an uncontracted negative:
 * You can play the piano, can you not?

In this and all other forms of the tag question, the tag subject must be a pronoun ("you" in the examples above). For example, "Lions can swim, can't lions?" is not natural, but must be converted to "Lions can swim, can't they?"

Intonation
The voice tone for the main part of the sentence (You can play the piano) is as a statement, in a flat, even voice.

The tag part can take two forms of intonation.
 * 1) Falling tone. Means the speaker is confident in the statement and does not expect to be contradicted.
 * 2) Rising tone. Means the speaker is not totally sure if the statement is true. The speaker is actually asking a question, although he or she still expects the listener will agree with the statement.

Negative–Affirmative
Alternatively, the statement can be negative, followed by the affirmative interrogative form of the appropriate auxiliary verb (or, in the case of "be" and sometimes "have", main verb).
 * But you can't play the violin, can you?

Here the speaker believes the other person can't play the violin, and is expecting the negative reply, and would find the affirmative reply surprising.

This structure is often employed when making a very polite request.
 * I couldn't have the afternoon off, could I?

Intonation
Intonation is the same as the affirmative–negative case: falling tone when confident of not being contradicted, rising tone when open to contradiction.

Affirmative–Affirmative
There also exists the affirmative statement followed by the affirmative interrogative form of the appropriate auxiliary verb (or, in the case of "be" and sometimes "have", main verb).
 * He can work next Sunday, can he?

Here the speaker is either:
 * 1) Asking a real question.
 * 2) Confirming the veracity of a new piece of information, as in the following example.
 * 3) Expressing incredulity, as in the following example from the same text.
 * 1) Expressing incredulity, as in the following example from the same text.

Intonation
In the affirmative–affirmative case, the tag question is normally spoken with a rising tone.

Use of question mark
While tag questions are, as their name suggests, normally followed by a question mark, this may be omitted if the sentence is considered more a statement than a true question. For example:


 * It's broken, isn't it? (speaker is asking for confirmation that it is broken)
 * It's broken, isn't it. (speaker is stating that it is broken, and the tag implies that the listener should have known or should have remembered)

When there is no question mark, the tag has a falling tone.

Other forms
While the above is the main grammar of tag questions, certain other words and phrases may also be employed to similar purpose. Here are just a few.
 * "right", "yes", "no": Used like a tag question in both American and British English.
 * You're coming to the party, right?
 * You're coming to the party, yes?
 * You're coming to the party, no?
 * "innit": A low-register contracted form of "isn't it" associated especially with British English, also in widely condemned use as wild card tag question, used irrespective of person, number or verb.
 * He's got a new car, innit?
 * "wannit": sometimes used as a contraction of "wasn't it".
 * "wannit": A low-register contracted form of "wasn't it" associated especially with British English, also in widely condemned use as wild card tag question for past time statements, used irrespective of person, number or verb.
 * He got an expensive new car last month, wannit?
 * "ain't": Low-register alternative to "isn't" or "aren't"; also used as a wild card to substitute for other verb forms (proscribed).
 * It's broken, ain't it.
 * He went away, ain't he?
 * "eh": Used without a pronoun, especially common in Canada, as a wild card tag.
 * It's cold outside, eh?
 * Humorously and redundantly, as in "How's it goin', eh?", popularized by Canadian sketch comedy characters Bob and Doug MacKenzie.