The ESL Teacher Kenn Podcast

hello students this is teacher Kenn

in today's episode of Advanced English

for the Bilingual Professional

we will be discussing tag questions

we'll be covering Lesson 25 in our book

English Sentence Structure Box C

and exercise 5 on pages 267 and 268

which correspond to PDF pages 280 and 281

now let's get started

as we can see in the examples

both isn't he and is he are tag questions negative

tag questions follow affirmative statements

as in the first example

repeat after me

John is here, isn't he?

the answer is yes he is or no

he isn't

now

affirmative tag questions follow negative statements

as in the second example

repeat after me

Mary isn't here, is she?

the answers are no she isn't

or yes she is

it's very important to remember that

tag questions do not change

affirmative or negative answers

yes continues being yes and no continues being no

the tag question always uses the auxiliary or

verb from the statement

let's practice with some additional examples

repeat after me

you can, go can't you?

she hasn't gone,?has she

John doesn't have a TV, does he?

they have a car, don't they?

Mary speaks Spanish, doesn't she?

very good

now let's read the additional examples on page 268

before moving on to exercise 5

repeat after me

it's a nice day today, isn't it?

yes it is

it wasn't very nice yesterday, was it?

no it wasn't

there's going to be a football game tomorrow.

isn't there?

yes there is

there isn't going to be a dance. is there?

no there isn't

it hasn't been very cold this winter, has it?

no it hasn't

it had snowed by this time last winter, hadn't it?

yes it had

we should study tonight, shouldn't we?

yes we should

we shouldn't have gone to the party last night,

should we?

no we shouldn't

you're going to be home tonight, aren't you?

yes I am

we must try to practice more, mustn't we?

yes we must

Argentina is the largest country in South America,

isn't it?

no it isn't

all right very good

in exercise 5 I will give you a statement

that will be either affirmative or negative

and I want you to give me the full statement

with the appropriate tag question

remember that an affirmative statement

requires a negative tag question and vice versa

let's begin with the examples from exercise 5

Mr Smith is from California

Mr Smith is from California, isn't he?

George wasn't in class yesterday

George wasn't in class yesterday, was he?

Mr Smith drives to work

Mr Smith drives to work, doesn't he?

No.1 John can drive a car

John can drive a car, can't he?

Mary speaks Spanish

Mary speaks Spanish, doesn't she?

John lived in New York last year

John lived in New York last year, didn't he?

Mr Smith flew to California last week

Mrs Smith flew to California last week, didn't she?

Bob lost his watch

Bob lost his watch, didn't he?

Doctor Jones has a lot of patients

Doctor Jones has a lot of patients, doesn't he?

Mister Smith doesn't like beer

Mr Smith doesn't like beer, does he?

Mary was at the party last night

Mary was at the party last night, wasn't she?

there's a party tonight

there's a party tonight, isn't there?

John won't forget to come

John won't forget to come, will he?

we aren't going to stay very late

we aren't going to stay very late, are we?

we should use English in class

we should use English in class, shouldn't we?

very good

you can get some extra practice with tag questions

in our book English Structure Practices on Lesson 25

exercise 7 pages 332 and 333

PDF pages 658 and 659

remember to review this structure

more than once this week and until next time

remember that English is easy

you've got me for practice

see you in the next class