How to answer dividing questions. Dividing Questions in English: A Guide. How to construct a separating question with modal verbs

Many of us know from school that there are different types interrogative sentences: general, special, alternative, to the subject, dividing. Dividing questions are regular sentences, but with a special “tail”. The ponytail corresponds to the Russian “isn’t it?”, “yes?”, “truth”, “ah?”…:

e.g. Good weather, is not it?
Do you love me, A?

If the sentence is negative, then the tail is “with a plus”; if the sentence is affirmative, then it is “with a minus”. The ending of a question includes an auxiliary verb and a personal pronoun. The pronoun corresponds to the subject from the first part of the question, and the subject is not necessarily expressed by a pronoun.

e.g. She plays the piano, doesn't she?
Jack isn't going to buy a car, is he?

It would seem that everything is simple and logical, but there are also subtleties here that are worth paying attention to.

As you have already noticed, negative tails contain only shortened forms. But what then to do with the verb to be (Present Simple), if it is in the first person singular? After all, there is no short form for am+not. The British got out of this situation with the help of a small legalized violation of grammar:

e.g. I'm late, aren't I?

But what tail to attach to a sentence that contains the phrase Let's? In fact, there is nothing complicated here. You just need to think logically. Let`s is a shortened form of Let us; us is a derivative of we. Hence:

e.g. Let's go to the cinema, shall we?

Note that the tail here is NOT negative.

Do not forget that if the first part of the question contains words such as: no, neither, no one, nobody, nothing, then, since they carry a negative component, the tail will be an ordinary interrogative.

e.g. No money is left is it?
Nothing has changed, has it?

It is also believed that even such words: scarcely, Barely, hardly, hardly ever, rarely also have a negative component.

e.g. He hardly ever reads books, does he?
Your wife rarely wears, does she?

Interesting thing - words anyone, anybody, nobody, no one, neither always have the third person singular. BUT in the tail of the dividing question they will be replaced by a personal pronoun they!

e.g. I don't think anyone will object, will they?
Neither of our friends complained, did they?

Using these same tails, if used separately, you can ask again. This questioning will be approximately equal to “Really?”. Only in this case, if the phrase is affirmative, then the end of the question will also be an ordinary interrogative, and vice versa.

e.g. - I am doing a karate course at the moment. - Are you?
- He didn't take your money. - Didn't he?

It is from knowledge of the intricacies of such seemingly familiar things that real knowledge of the language is formed! The power is in the little things!

Let's continue talking about tag question s, dividing questions, and we continue to enter the jungle and plunge into the depths. The basic grammatical structures have already been discussed, but there are still a few cases that are worth paying attention to.

Negative sentence. It will never be the same, … ?

A sentence with negation is not only don't, isn't and others wouldn't- but these are all kinds of never, nowhere, no one - no, never, nothing etc. Accordingly, tag in these cases must be positive:

You have nothing to declare, do you? You don't have anything to declare, right?
We have never done anything illegal, have we? We never did anything illegal, right?

Moreover, this includes not only “never and with no one,” but also such adverbs as rarely, rarely, hardly and many others meaning “rarely” and “barely.”

I hardly know you, do I? I barely know you, right?
They rarely visit their grandmother these days, do they? They rarely visit grandma now, don't they?

Dividing question to there is

There is may lead to some confusion - the subject here, apparently there, but what pronoun should I use? In this case, the pronoun there is from the phrases there is, there are doesn't change anything, it stays that way there.

There is something about this guy, isn’t there? There's something about this guy, isn't there?
There is nothing to talk about, is there? There's nothing to talk about here, right?

Question for "let's go." Let's do it, ... ?

First, let's understand the English "let's." Let's is let us, so the pronoun in the tag question is we. And with a verb (don’t look for a logical explanation for this, it just happened that way) – shall. And the whole thing will always look like “ shall we?»

Let's get wasted, shall we? Let's get drunk, shall we?
Let's never talk about it ever again, shall we? Let's never talk about this again, okay?

And here it is shall we? Feel free to take it out of context and use it as a polite invitation, adding a verb if necessary: shall we dance?(let me invite you to dance, madam), shall we?(Well, gentlemen, let's start our meeting already). Let's continue shall we?

First person question. I am a student, … ?

How to put the tag question to be in the first person, singular? We have all heard about isn’t and aren’t, but we have never heard about amn’t - and rightly so, we have not heard of it, because there is definitely no such option. But ask a dividing question with I possible in three ways:

• ain't I? ain’t is such a very, very colloquial form that is almost never mentioned in any textbooks, but exists perfectly in colloquial speech and songs.
• am I not?- grammatically perfect, but sounds a little “dramatic”, all you have to do is stand in an actor’s pose and raise your hands to the sky. I am indeed a prince of Denmark, am I not? Am I the Prince of Denmark or not?
• aren't I?- the most common form. Yes, grammatically it “doesn’t fit into any corners” and you’re unlikely to see it in academic grammars, but that’s exactly what ordinary Americans would say

How to answer a dividing question

Now let's move to the other side of the dialogue - how to answer the tag question? For example, to the question “ You are from Russia, aren’t you?» Should I say “yes, from Russia” or “no, from Russia”? What if there is a negation in the main sentence? " You aren't a spy, are you?- “Yes, not a spy” or “No, not a spy”...

Answer the main part of the question (not the tag), whether it contains a negation or not - always as if there were no particle not. Namely:

You are from Russia, aren’t you? You – are – from Russia. That's right, from Russia. Yes, I am.

You aren't a spy, are you? You – are – a spy(ignore not). No, no, no, not a spy, it’s just that everything here is so interesting, I want to know about everything... No, I'm not.

The Earth is rotating around the Sun, isn’t it? Yes it is.
You haven’t eaten all the cookies, have you? No, I haven't. Maybe it has been stolen by raccoons…

Dividing question for requests

Another, rather rare way to use tag questions is to make your request a little more polite. Just add at the end can you, can’t you, will you, won’t you, would you:

Pass me the bottle, can you? Pass the bottle, please.
Don’t forget the secret passcode again, will you? Please don't forget the secret code, okay?

Dividing question without inversion

And finally, a comment for advanced students. Sometimes, in moments of great surprise, excitement, anger, etc. The verb in a tag question is not inverted.

Oh my god, you are getting married, are you? Lord, you're getting married, right?
So you never stole my money, didn’t you? So you didn’t steal my money, as I understand it?

Well, perhaps that’s all about separation issues. Good luck.

In the case when the speaker wants to receive confirmation of any fact or his words, wants to find out whether the interlocutor agrees with him, expresses bewilderment or doubt, English language the so-called is usually used. dividing question (Disjunctive Question or Tag Question).

In Russian, in these cases, sentences are used with the phrases “isn’t it true?”, “isn’t it?”, “yes?”, “right?”, “isn’t it true?” and so on.

Unlike other types of English questions, which are characterized by reverse order words, the dividing question in its first part retains the direct word order, i.e. it looks like an ordinary declarative or negative sentence. Only in the second part the word order will be reversed - as in the question.

The second part of the disjunctive question consists of an auxiliary (or modal) verb, grammatically corresponding to the first part, and equivalent to the subject pronoun (the table - it, my friends - they, etc.).

In this case, the following principle is observed: If the first part of the question is an affirmative sentence, then the auxiliary (or modal) verb in the second part will be in negative form(usually abbreviated). And, conversely, if the first part of the question is negative, the verb in the second part will be in the affirmative form.

He is a chemist, isn't he? - He's a chemist, right?
He isn't a chemist, is he? - He's not a chemist, right?

You like fish don't you? - You love fish, right?
You don't like fish, do you? - You don't like fish, do you?

A question with an affirmative first part (and, accordingly, a negative second) is used when the speaker expects to receive an affirmative answer. If a negative answer is expected, the first part will be negative, and the second part will be affirmative.

It should be remembered that dividing questions containing in the first part the words nothing, nobody, no one, no, neither, never, scarcely, hardly, barely etc., will be negative, so their second part must be affirmative:

So, they did nothing, did they? - So they didn't do anything, right?

In dividing questions with a revolution, the pronoun in the second part is there:

There is a toilet on the train, isn't there? - There is a toilet on the train, right?

In dividing questions with the words anybody, anyone, these, those, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one, nobody, the pronoun in the second part is they.

Everybody knew it, didn’t they? - And everyone knew about it, right?

Attention: For everything the pronoun is it.

In colloquial speech, the rule of grammatical correspondence between the first and second parts of a dividing question may be violated. Thus, the negative second part usually contains the verb in an abbreviated form: isn't, aren't, don't, can't, haven't, etc. Since am not has no abbreviation, either the full form is used with the pronoun I (Am I not?), or (much more often) the form aren't I?

I am late, am I not? - I'm late, right?
I am late, aren't I? - I'm late, right?

A disjunctive question can take the form of a request, a proposal, or a prohibition (see also Imperative). In this case, if the first part is affirmative, the second can contain the following forms (both affirmative and negative): will you?/won’t you? can you?/can’t you? Could you?/couldn't you?

Be quiet, can't you? - Be quiet, okay?

If the first part is negative, the second part usually uses the form will you?

Don"t touch this, will you? - Don’t touch this, okay?

In dividing questions expressing an invitation to some action and beginning with let's, the second part uses the form shall we?

Let's go to the theatre, shall we? - Let's go to the theater, shall we?

When the speaker really does not know the answer and wants information, the second part of the disjunctive question is pronounced with a rising tone. If only confirmation of a fact or the words of the speaker is required, the second part of the question is pronounced with a lower tone.

In writing, the second part of the separating question is separated by a comma.

The second part of the separating question can be a separate sentence, when the interlocutor simply asks again: “Yes?”, “Really?” etc. In this case, a statement corresponds to an affirmative question, and a negation corresponds to a negative question:

I like snakes. - I love snakes.
- Do you? - Is it true?

I haven't seen this film yet. - I haven't watched this film yet.
- Haven't you? - Really?

The answer to the dividing question is based on the following principle. If the first part of the question is affirmative, then Yes will mean agreement, and No will mean disagreement. If the first part of the question is negative, then No will mean agreement, and Yes will mean disagreement. For example:

You like vegetables, don't you? - You like vegetables, right?
- Yes, I do. - I really love (agreement) / No, I don't - On the contrary, I don’t like (disagreement).

You don"t like vegetables, do you? - You don’t like vegetables, right?
- No, I don"t - I really don’t like (agreement) / Yes, I do. - On the contrary, I love (disagreement).

Disjunctive Questions in English seem at first glance to be the simplest of the rest. In fact, all sorts of hidden difficulties await you here, sometimes not indicated even in the best English grammar textbooks. We tried to put together this big puzzle without missing a single piece.

Let's start with the fact that dividing questions in English are asked to express bewilderment or doubt, to find confirmation of a fact, to find out whether the interlocutor agrees with us or not. They consist of two parts, and the first one is the original sentence to which you are asking a question. You repeat it unchanged. Yes, yes, that's true. No question words or auxiliary verbs are needed. The whole point is in the second part, which is a small “tail” with a whole set of changing words. It’s good at least that it is always translated the same way: isn’t it? is not it? Yes? Truth? right? OK? Fine? and so on.

Question construction

Remember that the construction of the question depends solely on the type of sentence.

• If you are convinced that you are dealing with an affirmative phrase, then the auxiliary verb, particle will successively replace each other in the tail not and a pronoun equivalent to the subject:

You will cook spaghetti and bacon for dinner, won't you? — You'll cook spaghetti and bacon for dinner, right?

• If you come across a negative sentence, then the tail will consist of an auxiliary verb and a pronoun replacing the subject:

They were not playing hide-and-seek at that time yesterday, were they? “They weren’t playing hide and seek at this time yesterday, were they?”

Keep in mind that words nothing, nobody, no one, no, neither, never, scarcely, hardly, barely etc. automatically make the sentence negative:

Nothing was mentioned about it at the meeting, was it? — Nothing was mentioned about this at the meeting, right?

You never visit your aunt, do you? -You never visit your aunt, do you?

Verbs in the tails of separating questions in English

As you can guess, there are plenty to choose from:

• When meeting with to be and we use it. And in sentences with there is / there are these two comrades need to be swapped. Be careful with numerous forms:

Jane was so happy last Friday, wasn't she? — Jane was so happy last Friday, wasn't she?

We are not talking about Nora, are we? “We're not talking about Nora, are we?”

Jack is back home, isn't he? - Jack's back home, right?

There are flowers in all the rooms, aren't there? — There are flowers in all the rooms, aren’t there?

• WITH other verbs in all tense forms, the corresponding auxiliary verbs are used in the tail:

Nelly has lost her laptop hasn't she? — Nellie lost her laptop, right?

Your cat purrs so sweetly, doesn't it? — Your cat purrs so sweetly, doesn’t it?

We will be knitting tomorrow at 3 o’clock, won't we? — We will knit tomorrow at 3 o’clock, right?

• If you get caught modal verb, then we will need it for the tail:

Jerry can speak French, can't he? — Jerry can speak French, right?

You must leave immediately mustn't you? “You have to leave immediately, right?”

• If you need to defuse an offer in imperative mood, That:

1. When making a request or order, use will you? won't you? can you? can't you? could you? couldn't you?

Please, buy some apples and bananas, will you? — Please buy some apples and bananas, okay?

Sit down can't you? - Sit down, okay?

2. Suitable in negative phrases will you:

Don’t touch my books in the living-room, will you? - Don't touch my books in the hall, okay?

3. If a sentence begins with let's- come on (those), then you need to use shall we:

Let's have a party, shall we? - Let's have a party, okay?

4. Do not confuse the previous candidate with words let+ pronoun in objective case. Here, focus on the tail won't you or will you:

Let me explain to you how to get to the station, won't you? - Let me tell you how to get to the station, okay?

Nuances of use

• If you come across this form to be, How am, then you will have to use aren't I or are I in the tail, although we admit that it sounds unusual:

I am late for the class, aren't I? — I'm late for class, aren't I?

• Words anybody, anyone, these, those, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one, nobody can easily mislead you. The fact is that if they are present, any question will end with they rather than any other option:

Everybody is so nice out there, aren't they? - Everyone there is so nice, right?

Someone has knocked on my door, haven't they? — Someone knocked on my door, right?

Similarly, we change that, this and everything to it:

Everything is so bright in Christmas Prague, isn't it? — Everything is so bright in Prague at Christmas, isn’t it?

And finally, let's learn how to answer such questions.

• If the first part is affirmative, then you can agree using Yes, express disagreement with No:

You like mineral water with juice, don’t you? - Yes, I do / No, I don’t. - You like mineral water with juice, right? - Not really.

• If it is negative, then No will help you agree, and Yes- to disagree:

You didn’t go to London last year, did you? - No, I didn’t/Yes, I did. — You didn't go to London last year, did you? - Not really.

Disjunctive Questions or Tag-Questions do not pose a threat to the exam grade or your ego, if you push yourself and learn all the possible tails and exceptions, you can consider yourself lucky, if only because the first part of the question does not need to be changed. Therefore, keep your nose up!

Tag Questions or dividing questions in English are a type of general issues. They are asked when they want to clarify information or get support from their interlocutor.

English language includes topic separator question , which is one of the easiest, most understandable and interesting. QuestionsTag Questions are called that way because it is formed from 2 components that are separated by a comma: the main part of the question and its complement. In translation, the last part will sound: “isn’t it?” or “is it true?” In Russian we also have questions of this type: “The weather is beautiful, isn’t it?”

Eg,

• Anna hasn’t come yet, has she? – Anna hasn’t come yet, right?

Interrogative parts express sarcasm, surprise of the speaker, or a desire for his words to be confirmed.

How are dividing questions asked in English?

The first part of the question looks like a regular declarative sentence:

• Negative (Anna can’t swim fast – Anna can’t swim)
• Positive (You will cross the street at the green light - You will cross the road to the green light).

The “tail” acts as a short question. It is he who shows the speaker’s doubts.

The second component may change. It is built in accordance with how the first part was formulated.

If the first part was worn negative character, the “tail” contains a positive statement. And, conversely, if the main component is positive, the second part will be negative.

• Anna cannot knit, can she? – Anna can’t knit, can she?
• Tom is leaving tomorrow, isn’t he? – Laura is leaving tomorrow, isn’t she?

The second part of the disjunctive question in British has two components:

• The person in question, used in the first part. This can be a pronoun or a proper noun.
• Modal verb, verb to be or auxiliary verb. As mentioned above, in this case they focus on the first part.

It is worth considering how such structures are compiled.

Making a construction with an auxiliary verb

Auxiliary verbs are not translated; their main purpose is to serve as a pointer. Thanks to modal verbs, you can determine the number of characters and the time in which events occur.

The main difficulty in composing the constructions under consideration is that you need to know the tenses so as not to make a mistake in constructing the second part of the question.

For an affirmative construction, the rule has the following scheme:

Statement + auxiliary verb + not + actor?

Eg,

• Jack studies English. – Jack is studying English.

The first thing to start with is determining the time. IN in this example it speaks of constant continuous action, which means the tense is Present Simple. Accordingly, the auxiliary verb for the 3rd person singular in the Simple Present is does.

Since the first part of the example contains a statement, you should add not to the “tail”.

The face in question does not change in any way.

As a result, we get that the separating question in English looks like:

• Jack studies English, doesn’t he? – Jack is studying English, isn’t he?

The table below shows examples of these constructions for simple times.

To consolidate the material, you need to make 5 questions at each time.

Scheme for the formation of a negative construction:

Negation + auxiliary verb + actor?

In this case, everything is easy - we remove the particle not in the second part and use the same verb that was in the first part. The character does not change.

Eg:

• She doesn't drink coffee. She doesn't drink coffee.

In the second part of the construction, only the verb does should be taken. As a result, it turns out to be:

• She doesn’t drink coffee, does she? She doesn't drink coffee, does she?

Constructing a question with a modal verb

Modal verbs show the attitude towards the action that the interlocutor is talking about (must run, can understand). If there is a modal verb in the construction, the auxiliary is not used.

For affirmative questions in English, the scheme is as follows:

Statement + modal verb + not + actor?

“Tail” in this case contains the same modal verb, but with the particle not.

Eg:

• She can run fast. She can run fast.

The separating question will look like:

• She can run fast, can’t she? She can run fast, right?

For negation:

Negation + modal verb + actor?

Eg:

• She should not go alone. She shouldn't walk alone.

Using the diagrams, we get:

• She should not go alone, should she? She shouldn't be walking alone, should she?

Formulation of a question with to be

The verb to be means “to be, to be.” Unlike other verbs existing in the English language, this one changes in number and person:

For approval:

Statement + verb to be + not + character?

In the “tail” the verb to be is placed in the same tense as in the first part, only with the addition of the particle not.

Eg:

• Samanta is a PR Manager. – Samantha is a PR manager.

Using the diagram, it turns out:

• Samanta is a PR Manager, isn’t she? – Samantha is a PR manager, isn’t she?

For a negative design, the diagram looks like:

Negation + verb to be + character?

The second part of the question is made up using the verb to be and the character from the first part.

For example:

• Miranda and Jeremy were not embarrassed? – Miranda and Jeremy were not embarrassed.

Using the diagram, we get:

• Miranda and Jeremy were not embarrassed, were they? – Miranda and Jeremy weren't embarrassed, were they?

Pitfalls in English when constructing a Question Tag

If there is a possessive pronoun in the first part (for example, his son), in the tail it changes to a short pronoun (using the example above, we get “he”).

After the words everyone (everyone), someone (someone), anyone (anyone) in the second part they are used. For example, Someone can do it, can’t they? - Someone can do this, right?

If “I am” is found in the first part of the affirmative construction, am is changed to are in the “tail” and the particle not is added. For example, I am right, aren’t I? - I'm right, right?

Some words in English carry the meaning of negation (hardly - hardly, barely, barely, nothing, nobody, etc.). Using them in the first part of the affirmative construction, we get negations, so in this case the particle not is not added to the second part. For example, They have nowhere to go, do they? “They have nowhere to go, do they?”

In order to correctly compose dividing questions with a tail, you should remember that if the first part of the construction is affirmative, a negation should be added to the second part and, vice versa, if the first part is negative, the second part is positive. In general, the topic of dividing questions in English is quite simple and understandable for independent study.

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