Question tags – special cases

1) In the present form of be: In an affirmative statement, if the subject is

“I”, the auxiliary changes to aren’t in the tag.

I am not attending the conference, am I?

I’m sitting next to you, aren’t I? (also possible: am I not?)

I’m a little red, aren’t I?

- I'm late, aren't I?

(The negative question tag "am I not" has no contraction. Because a

question tag with no contraction sounds very pedantic, we prefer a very
ungrammatical constraction but which is correct for question tags: "aren't
I?")

2) With let’s, the tag is shall we?

Let’s go to the beach, shall we?

Let’s have a coffee, shall we?

3) With an imperative sentence (affirmative or negative), the tag is will

you?

Close the window, will you?

Hold this, will you?

Don’t say that, will you?

4) We use an affirmative tag after a sentence containing a negative word

such as never, hardly, nobody.

Nobody lives in this house, do they?

You’ve never liked me, have you?

5)When the subject is nothing, we use “it” in the tag.

Nothing bad happened, did it?

Nothing ever happens, does it?

6) If the subject is nobody, somebody, everybody, no one, someone or

everyone, we use “they” in the tag.

Nobody asked for me, did they?

Nobody lives here, do they?

7) If the main verb in the sentence is have (not an auxiliary verb), it is

more common to use do in the tag.

You have a Ferrari, don’t you?

She had a great time, didn’t she?

8) With used to, we use “didn’t” in the tag.

You used to work here, didn’t you?

He used to have long hair, didn’t he?

9) We can use affirmative tags after affirmative sentences to express a

reaction such as surprise or interest.

You’re moving to Brazil, are you?

SAME-WAY QUESTION TAGS

We can use an affirmative question tag with an affirmative sentence and

with a falling intonation. We use these same-way question tags when we
are just repeating what somebody said (maybe even the listener), so we
are not asking a question or looking for confirmation, we are simply
repeating information to express interest, surprise, concern or some other
reaction.

Compare:

- Carol is your girlfriend, isn't she? ↗ (I think she is, but I'm not sure)

- Oh yes, she's my girlfriend

- Carol is your girlfriend, is she? ↘ (I know perfectly well, I just want to let
you know that I know)

- Well, yes. Who told you?

- Oh, everybody knows now

- Hello, I'm Tim. I will be your student this year.

- Oh, so you will be my student, will you?

- Yes, nice to meet you, sir.

More examples:
- Mary will come later, will she?

- You're Kevin Bratson, are you?

- Oh, so this is your house, is it?

- So you're having a baby soon, are you? Congratulations!

- Oh, he thinks he is the best, is he? Come on, when will he grow up!

- You're father's at home, is he? Can I come in?

We can also have a negative sentence with a negative question tag, but
that is a lot of negativeness and it sounds aggressive:

- Oh, I heard that you don't like my house, don't you? ↘

- You're not very nice, aren't you? ↘

If there are two verbs in the sentence, the question tag may refer to one
or the other, you must use your common sense here:

- I think you're John, aren't you? (= are you John?)

- I think you're John, don't I (= do I think...?) [this would be correct but

very rare]