Speaker 1: Hey, let me ask you a question. You've studied English before,
haven't you, And you've probably heard of tag questions or
negative questions before, right, Well, isn't this going to be
an interesting lesson for you?
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
This is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight eighty eight. Tag
questions for sounding more natural in English. Hey, thanks for
tuning in and welcome back to the Happy English Podcast.
So here's the deal. In everyday conversation, native speakers love
to use short questions at the end of a se
like it's a nice day, isn't it. You've met Sarah,
haven't you? You're not leaving yet, are you. These are
called tag questions, and they're really a natural part of
spoken English. Maybe you've heard these before, but you're not
one hundred percent sure how or when to use them.
Don't worry, a lot of English learners feel the same way.
So today I'll show you how these work and how
you can use them to sound more like a native speaker.
So let's jump in and get you sounding even more
natural when you speak English. Tag questions are all about
the intonation, and that intonation is falling when you're making
an observation. We usually use tag questions with falling intonation
to make a comment, not to ask a real question.
It's like you're saying, we both know this is that's true? Right?
Imagine this scene. You're heading out for lunch with a
friend or a coworker and it's sunny in twenty two
degrees celsius. She says, how it's a beautiful day, isn't it.
She's not really asking you, She's just making an observation
and inviting you to agree, probably because she thinks you
will agree. This kind of tag question shows up all
the time when people want to connect, Like when you
go to a friend's house for lunch, you can say
Jane makes awesome pizza, doesn't she? Or at the coffee shop,
this coffee is really strong, isn't it? And maybe you're
thinking about the information in this lesson. It's useful, isn't
it Again? That's falling into nation The voice drops at
the end. It's technically not a question, it's a friendly comment,
and we use this English when we're pretty sure the
person we're talking to has the same idea or opinion,
like nice day, isn't it Now? Let's flip that around.
We usually use tag questions with rising information when we
ask for confirmation. When we're not sure about something and
we want to confirm information, we use a tag question
with rising intonation. In other words, your voice goes up
at the end like a question. Here's a real example.
I was at a party this weekend and I saw
a guy I had met about a year ago. I
wasn't sure, but I thought he told me he was
from France, So I said, so, Luke, you're from France.
Aren't you see what I did? I had an idea,
but I wanted to check if it was right. Here
are a few more like that. You can play the guitar,
can't you? Or at the office, Ted hasn't called, has he?
These are true questions, so again rising intonation. Try it out,
and now that you know that, let's take it to
the next level. In everyday American English, instead of saying
the full tag question, we often just say right, like
Jane makes awesome pizza right, or at the coffee shop,
this coffee is really strong. Right, So I could have
asked Luke, so you're from France? Right? You can play
the guitar? Right? Okay? And here's one more casual tag
we use sometimes no no. This is more common when
the sentence is positive, like Jenny likes to bake no,
or Luke is from France. No, or this and is interesting. No.
This is language you probably won't see in textbooks, but
we use it all the time in conversation. All right,
let's do a quick recap. We use tag questions with
falling intonation to make a comment It's a nice day,
isn't it. We use tag questions with rising intonation to
confirm information like you're coming tomorrow, aren't you? And in
casual English, you can just use rite or no, we've
met before? Right, you like jazz? No. So here's your
challenge this week. Try adding these tag questions to your conversations.
Ask your friend you've been there before, right, Or say
to your coworker this project is going well. No. Trust me.
When you use tag questions naturally, people will notice how
smooth and confident in your English sounds. And hey, if
you want to practice English from this lesson and all
of my podcasts with me and a group of other
awesome English learners. Come check out my podcast Learner's Study Group.
We meet once a week and go over the language
from these podcast lessons together. It's a great way to
build confidence and improve your speaking. Just check the link.
We are listening to this podcast right now, or visit
Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast episode eight eighty
eight from more info and thanks for listening, and remember,
learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on your journey.
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