TAG CUESTIONS

En inglés es frecuente terminar las frases con otra frase corta, de signo contrario, la cual tiene la intención de pedir la opinión o buscar la aprobación del interlocutor: Estas frases equivalen a: ¿verdad?, ¿no es verdad?, ¿no?, ¿no es así? ¿en serio?

Ejemplo/Example:

z You eat meat, don’t you?

(Comes carne, ¿verdad?).

z You eat meat, don’t you?

(Comes carne, ¿verdad?).

z She doesn’t like to dance, does she?

(No le gusta bailar, ¿no?).

z Alex and Sergio are friends, aren’t they?

(Alex y Sergio son amigos, ¿no?). 

Grammatical Rules (Reglas gramaticales)

Para formar esta pregunta corta utilizaremos el auxiliar de la frase principal y su sujeto pero de signo contrario.

Si la oración es afirmativa, la “tag question” es negativa y viceversa.

                     Postive sentences, with negative tags

Present simple 'be'	She's Italian, isn't she?
Present simple other verbs	They live in London, don't they?
Present continuous	We're working tomorrow, aren't we?
Past simple 'be'	It was cold yesterday, wasn't it?
Past simple other verbs	He went to the party last night, didn't he?
Past continuous	We were waiting at the station, weren't we?
Present perfect	They've been to Japan, haven't they?
Present perfect continuous	She's been studying a lot recently, hasn't she?
Past perfect	He had forgotten his wallet, hadn't he?
Past perfect continuous	We'd been working, hadn't we?
Future simple	She'll come at six, won't she?
Future continuous	They'll be arriving soon, won't they?
Future perfect	They'll have finished before nine, won't they?
Future perfect continuous	She'll have been cooking all day, won't she?
Modals	He can help, can't he?
Modals	John must stay, mustn't he?

Negative sentences, with positive tags

Present simple 'be'	We aren't late, are we?
Present simple other verbs	She doesn't have any children, does she?
Present continuous	The bus isn't coming, is it?
Past simple 'be'	She wasn't at home yesterday, was she?
Past simple other verbs	They didn't go out last Sunday, did they?
Past continuous	You weren't sleeping, were you?
Present perfect	She hasn't eaten all the cake, has she?
Present perfect continuous	He hasn't been running in this weather, has he?
Past perfect	We hadn't been to London before, had we?
Past perfect continuous	You hadn't been sleeping, had you?
Future simple	They won't be late, will they?
Future continuous	He'll be studying tonight, won't he?
Future perfect	She won't have left work before six, will she?
Future perfect continuous	He won't have been travelling all day, will he?
Modals	She can't speak Arabic, can she?
Modals	They mustn't come early, must they?

Nota: Ten cuidado con los verbos “to have” y “to have got”.

z To have got:

z They’ve got a dog, haven’t they?

z (Tienen un perro, ¿no?)

z To have:

z They have a dog, don’t they?

z (Tienen un perro, ¿no?)