Don't you just love studying English? Isn't learning another language really interesting? I
guess you're enjoying this podcast, aren't you? Today? This lesson is all
about checking information. Let's check it out. Welcome to another Happy English podcast,
coming to you from New York City. And here's your English teacher,
Michael. All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better. And this is
Happy English Podcast, Episode seven oh eight. Checking information. For this English
lesson, I'm going to show you a couple of different types of questions that
you can ask when you want to check that the information you have is right.
Basically, these are tag questions and negative questions. By the end of
this lesson, you'll understand how these questions are used in everyday conversational English.
Let's get the ball rolling. First of all, we have tag questions with
rising intonation. I was at a party this weekend and I saw a guy
that I had met about a year or so ago. I think I remember
him telling me that he was from France, and I just wanted to check
if my memory was correct, so I asked him like this, So,
remy, you're from France? Aren't you. When you have an idea about
something and you just want to check to see if the information that you have
is true or not, you can use a tag question like this with rising
in to nation. Here are some other examples. You can play the guitar,
can't you? Katie will go shopping with us tomorrow? Won't she?
Ted hasn't called has he? It shouldn't rain tomorrow? Should it? By
the way, in casual conversational American English, instead of putting the full tag
question at the end, we often just say right. Instead of saying you
can play the guitar, can't you, you can say you can play the
guitar. Right. Let's check out a couple of other examples. Katie will
go shopping with us tomorrow? Won't she? Becomes Katie will go shopping with
us tomorrow? Right? Ted hasn't called right? It shouldn't rain tomorrow?
Right. It's also possible again in casual conversation American English, to use no
as the tag question. We generally use no as a tag question when the
main sentence has a positive verb. For example, Noriko likes to bake.
No now go hates celary No. Tammy is from Toronto no. In addition
to tag questions, we also have negative questions. Isn't English interesting? You
can use this kind of negative question when you want to confirm something that you
believe to be true. Isn't English interesting? When you ask a question like
this, you're actually expecting that the answer is going to be yes, and
the meaning is the same as a tag question. Here's an example conversation,
Hey, Jack, isn't English interesting? Yes? It really is interesting?
I asked Jack, isn't English interesting? Because it seems that he's having fun
in his English? And as I expected, he said yes. Here are
some other examples. Didn't you already see that movie? Isn't this the same
restaurant that we went to when we celebrated Jenny's birthday? Aren't these flowers usually
blooming in April? We also use negative questions when we give our opinion about
something and we expect that the other person will agree with us. Here are
some examples. It's almost five pm. Isn't it better to take a subway?
Shouldn't we tell the boss we're leaving early today? Look at those dark
clouds? Wouldn't it be better to take an umbrella? You can also use
a negative question when you believe the answer is no. Here's an example of
conversation, Hey, Kim, what's wrong? Don't you feel well? No,
not at all. I think I'm coming down with a cold. I
asked Kim, don't you feel well? Because she didn't look well, and
as I expected, she said no. Here are some other examples. Oh
no, isn't Danny coming to the party? Hasn't Jack finished that report yet?
Aren't we going to get a bonus this year? Keep in mind the
best way to remember this and any other grammar pattern is to take the word
or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true for you or true in
your world, and then memorize your sentences. Oh no, don't we have
any more time for this lesson? I guess not. By the way,
if you'd like to get more practice using your English, why don't you join
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for live group coaching every week. Plus get the pdf transcript and audio download
for every Happy English podcast in the past and in the future, and each
episode has exercises where you can practice this English point with speaking and writing.
Check by me to learn more or to see some of the example sentences from
this lesson. Just visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson seven eight.
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