You're Listening, Aren't You? Mastering English Question Tags
2026-07-05 13 min
Description & Show Notes
Why do native English speakers constantly say isn't it?, don't you? and haven't you? If you've ever wondered how to sound more natural in English, this episode is for you. Discover how question tags can instantly improve your English, make small talk easier, and help you sound like an advanced English speaker.
- 00:00 – Introduction and demonstration of question tags
- 01:06 – What are question tags and why are they useful?
- 03:30 – How question tags are formed
- 06:38 – Dave's memory hack for building question tags
- 08:54 – Why question tags improve your English level
- 09:26 – Birgit's practice technique
- 09:57 – Intonation changes the meaning
- 10:38 – The informal shortcut: "Right?"
- 11:55 – Preview of the next episode
Would you like to work with us?
Join our Conversation Club and activate your English with one of us and other like-minded people. https://www.threeenglishexperts.com/conversation-club
Rebecca: https://rebeccadeacon.com
Birgit: https://birgitkasimirski.de
Warum sagen englische Muttersprachler ständig „isn’t it?“, „don’t you?“ und „haven’t you?“? Wenn du dich schon einmal gefragt hast, wie du auf Englisch natürlicher klingen kannst, ist diese Folge genau das Richtige für dich. Entdecke, wie Frageanhängsel dein Englisch sofort verbessern, Small Talk erleichtern und dir helfen können, wie ein fortgeschrittener Englischsprecher zu klingen.
- 00:00 – Einführung und Demonstration von Frageanhängseln
- 01:06 – Was sind Frageanhängsel und warum sind sie nützlich?
- 03:30 – Wie Frageanhängsel gebildet werden
- 06:38 – Daves Merksatz zum Bilden von Frageanhängseln
- 08:54 – Warum Frageanhängsel dein Englischniveau verbessern
- 09:26 – Birgits Übungstechnik
- 09:57 – Intonation verändert die Bedeutung
- 10:38 – Die informelle Abkürzung: „Right?“
- 11:55 – Vorschau auf die nächste Folge
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi and welcome to the 3 English Experts.
I'm Birgit.
I'm Dave.
And I'm Rebecca.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey.
Hello and welcome to another episode.
Rebecca, it's a lovely day, isn't it?
Yes, here in Dublin, it's a very nice day.
But it's not raining in Germany, is it?
No, it's not.
The sun is shining, which is nice.
But Dave, you have had rain lately, haven't you?
Well, just a little bit, but not too much.
But too much for Valencia, I must say.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we started in a rather strange way today.
Rebecca is now going to tell all why did we do that.
Rebecca.
So you might have noticed we were using, in a very deliberate and obvious way, we were using question tags, weren't we?
Yes, we were.
Yes, we were.
So that's our topic for today is question tags.
It's an interesting one.
We were talking about it just now.
And we think that actually, it's something a lot of our clients don't always use very much.
But actually, British people specifically, I don't know if the Americans do it as much as we do, but the Brits use them quite a lot.
It's very, very common.
So what am I talking about?
I'm talking about this little tag, this little sort of thing hanging on the end of the sentence.
There is a mini question.
So Dave said, oh, it's a lovely day today, isn't it?
And I said, yes, it is.
And then I said, oh, but it's not raining in Germany, Birgit, is it?
So the is it is the question tag.
And then she said, you've had a lot of rain recently, haven't you?
And this is the question tag, this little mini question at the end.
So that's our topic for today.
First of all, why do you need them?
I would say there's a couple of good reasons why it's good to have question tags.
I think point one, they're actually very good for small talk because they encourage another person to speak because you're asking them actually a question and they kind of have to say at least, yes, it is a nice day or yes, it is.
So it's kind of encouraging.
Oh, you haven't been here before, have you?
Or oh, you live in London, don't you?
It's kind of encouraging someone to say, yes, I do.
And it's kind of a little bit of a small talk thing.
And it's also used to kind of confirm or question something.
But in an indirect way, instead of saying, are you French, which is very direct, you could just say, oh, you're French, aren't you?
And it's a sort of an indirect way of asking a question.
It just makes it less direct, I would say.
There is an equivalent, for example, in German, you could say order at the end of a sentence order or gel or no.
And there's different ways of doing it.
It's very easy to do in German because it's just a word.
It's a little bit trickier to form them in English, but they are pretty useful.
So Birgit is going to tell us about the grammar part and how to form our question tags.
Right.
You are going to do that, aren't you, Birgit?
I am.
Thank you, Rebecca.
I like this topic to bring up also with learners because this way you can train the different grammar tenses.
And also what's another tip for learners is when people talk like that, like Rebecca just did, aren't you?
So this is like a ping pong.
So aren't you?
Yes, I need to answer, I am.
But sometimes you have, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
So this question tag gives you, you can pick that up, aufgreifen.
I think how the people ask, that's also interesting for learners to get starting point of what you want to say.
They find that sometimes helpful.
What's the rule behind it?
So basically you have a different tag for depending on what grammar tense you use at that moment.
So for example, you could say, as Rebecca just said, the weather is nice.
The tricky bit is that you have a positive and a negative tag.
So this was a statement, the weather is nice.
What we need to do is we need the contrasting question tag, which is a negative.
So we say, isn't it?
So you could instead also have said, the weather isn't bad.
And then, so a negative statement, the tag would be positive.
Is it?
It needs a little bit of training.
I don't think it comes very naturally.
So people need to train that a little.
And this is what I like about the grammar because, so it's easy or it sounds easy with, is it, was it, wasn't it, wasn't it, was it, were there, there were, weren't there, are there, aren't there.
So it's always the positive and the negative.
A little more complicated for people who don't talk a lot or for learners at a lower level, you like beer.
And then the question tag needs to be the negative or the question statement, the negative, like, don't you, you don't like beer.
So people need to think of that to be able to bring that up, the negative part.
The same with simple past then.
Well, mom, you lived in England when you were younger.
And then the negative is, didn't you?
So this leads a little bit of training.
And as Rebecca rightly said, many learners don't use it.
We have more tenses, of course.
I have some more examples for you.
I used present perfect, which I always find very important in English.
You have had nice weather, Dave, haven't you?
And you could even say you hadn't lived in Ireland then, had you?
So that's a little complicated, but I love that, of course.
I like the grammar of it.
We will leave at five, won't we?
The negative of will.
So you can do that with any tense and whatever construction.
Dave, is there anything to add?
You have something to add, don't you?
Indeed, I do.
In actual fact, a little hack that maybe helps the listeners.
Also, you can find out from episode 67, when we talked about actual questions, asking questions.
And in there, we talked about the five finger rule, which is one of my faves to help people ask questions generally.
But here, it maybe also helps to try to think about what is the question tag, especially with the sort of the, because we're using what they call the helping verb, generally speaking, if it's for the present tense, or if it's for the past tense, or the present perfect.
So the helping word, the do, the does, the did, and then the will, of course.
So these are called the helping verbs, and they're the ones that go at the end.
Of course, if you're talking with the B form, in any form, that is then the main verb, okay?
But if you're talking generally, then we use the auxiliary verb, that helping verb, that's the one that goes as a question tag.
Maybe that helps a little bit to remember it, because of course, that's the tricky thing as German speakers, or these question tags, is you have a simple word, and we have a whole construction, grammatical construction, and I think that is the main reason why people find it so difficult, and why I'm sure you'll both agree that a lot of people avoid them, if possible.
Or you hear people trying to say something, something, something, and then or.
So they're translating literally, they translate literally.
And of course, we hear that all the time.
And then, of course, we should then correct them in the correct format, or whatever it is.
So it's very, very tricky.
And for me, I would say if people use this, and they use this regularly, I would say that's already quite a really good level of English, because it really is something that is difficult to do for non-native speakers, because of the having to think quickly, what is the tag at the end is really, really difficult.
I think it is this habit, you have to get used to using it and just train it a lot.
And I would say, you know, you start with just a few easy ones that the is and isn't it, or you can do that, can't you just to make it simple, and then progress maybe to the have or the didn't you and kind of it gets a bit trickier.
But for me, it's a definite upgrade.
If you're looking to upgrade B2 to C1, I would expect that you can use question tags easily, and that they flow into conversation.
So yeah, it's a good upgrade.
Yeah, and I just remembered that this came into my system or went into my system when I was living in England, probably towards the end or something when I heard people use it.
And I remember that I had sort of in my head trying to repeat things.
And that's what I tell learners.
So I have a few sentences.
So you have some statements in your mind, and then you add the question tag.
I'll have a full day of learning my thought kind of thing, you talk to yourself, and that's a good exercise to get used to it.
Okay, another little trick is knowing how to say them at the end, because there's a subtle difference.
If you say, for example, when you are really unsure, the sound at the end goes up a little bit, right?
So you understood me, didn't you?
That means you're not sure, right?
But if it goes down, it's really that you're actually confirming something.
You understood me, didn't you?
So there you see the difference, the going up at the end and the going down at the end.
The golden nuggets.
So our little hack today is that, and this is what many people also use, is they say, right, this is correct, right, Rebecca, right?
Right, yes, right it is, yes.
And it is a little bit slang, it's a little bit informal.
I wouldn't do it all the time, but with friends and stuff, you would say, oh, yeah, yeah, you're in Dusseldorf today, right?
Right, yes.
But you told us before that it's not very formal, so your dad gives you some remark if you do that.
So what does he say?
So I'll say, oh, it's nice today in Sheffield, right?
And he'll say, love, love, love.
So yeah, because he makes fun of me because I use it a lot.
I say right a lot, and it's not proper English, but you can do that.
It's an easy hack, but it's not a formal one, but it's an easy workaround.
And I think it's a nice story, and it gives listeners the idea that, obviously, it does disturb people, like your father, and it's not the correct thing.
So British people, at least, I don't know about Americans, where they use question tags as much.
I can say for myself, probably I use it less than you two do, don't I?
Maybe I should start using it more, especially with raising my voice or having it.
It does take some practise.
Yeah, a lot of learnings in here today.
Next time, when we're sending out an episode, it will be about misconceptions about learning languages.
We are confronted with people coming out with statements.
They say they have a mindset that seems to be clear for them that, I don't know, we will talk about what these are, but certainly there's a lot on people's minds, which we think is definitely wrong or not true and needs to be talked about.
So we'll see you next time.
Hopefully, you'll be listening again.
Thanks for listening today.
Bye-bye.
Thank you so much for pressing play today.
If you enjoy our podcast, please share with your friends, your family, or your co-workers.
Or you can also support us by giving us a thumbs up or a star rating or a review on whatever podcast platform you are using to listen to us.
For questions and comments, you can also head over to our website, 3englishexperts.com.
Thank you so much for listening.
We really appreciate your support.
Have a great day and see you next time.