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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > question tag
question tag
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KHAWLA ALZIOD
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question tag
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Hello everyone , I would be grateful if any one helped me in completing the following sentences with suitable question tags .
1.You might leave early,--------------------------? 2.Jason may use his mobile phone at class ,----------------------------? 3.I don �t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly,--------------------------?
According to the last one there are two suggested answers ,but I want to check the correct answer.Is it do I? OR wasn �t he ? thanks . |
16 Apr 2012
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yanogator
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I would say "was he" for the third one, not either of the choices you gave. For the first one, I think the British would say "mightn �t you" (Don �t take my word for it, though), but that wouldn �t be very common in the US. Also, in the US, we would avoid the second one altogether as far as a tag question is concerned. Bruce |
16 Apr 2012
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Olindalima ( F )
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Hi
First and second sentences seem very weird to me, I wouldn �t use , here, a grammar tag, I would, rather, deliberately, avoid such a question -tag, which, my opinion, would be, in grammar rules , like this:
1.You might leave early,mightn �t you ? ( sounds horrible )
2.Jason may use his mobile phone at class ,may not he ? ( more horrible, if possible )
Third one:
3.I don �t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly,????????
The third rises a question: what is a question-tag? A tag, where you try to get some agreement, ( or not ) from the the person you are speaking to. So I would go for a more strict grammar tag, which sounds to me more natural, I would say:
3.I don �t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly, do you ?
I must say I am not a native, so, it is worth what it is. Let �s wait for our native experts and see what they really speak.
Linda
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16 Apr 2012
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Apodo
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This is how I would make tag questions:
1.You might leave early , mightn �t you?
2.Jason may use his mobile phone in class may he not? (formal)
2. Jason can use his mobile phone in class, can �t he?
3.I don �t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly, was he?
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16 Apr 2012
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CyrillicAlphabet
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1. You might leave early, can�t you?
In the sentence You might leave early the modal verb might means a possibility, i.e. perhaps you will leave early.
2. Jason may use his mobile phone in class, can�t he?
The modal verb may expresses the possibility that Jason will use (future) or is using (present) his mobile phone in class.
3. I don�t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly, wasn�t he?
In this case the tag is linked to the embedded sentence, i.e. the man was accused of the theft wrongly. For this reason the tag is negative.
3. I don�t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly, do you?
Here the tag is seeking the opinion of the person whom I am addressing. For this reason the tag is positive. The opposite of I don�t think is I think. As I know what I think, I am asking you a question to find out what you think about this matter.
Initially there were two sentences:
1) I don�t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly.
2) Do you think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly?
Next, we put them together and the result sentence is:
I don�t think that the man was accused of the theft wrongly, do you?
In fact, Linda and I share one and the same opinion about the third sentence.
Best wishes,
Cyrillic Alphabet
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17 Apr 2012
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yanogator
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I would never use "can �t you" in the first one or "wasn �t he" in the third one.
Bruce |
17 Apr 2012
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