LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR PRACTICE

13.3 Tag questions and echo tags

13.3C Echo tags: 'Is he?'/'He is?' [> LEG 13.24-26]

Study:

Write:

An echo tag is a response, in tag form, to an affirmative or negative statement,

affirmative negative

He's resigning. He isn't resigning.

-Is he? He is? - Isn't he? He isn't?

• He is, isn't he? - He isn't, is he?


• He is, is he? -

If our voice goes up on the echo, we want more information:

I've just won £500! -Have/you ?/Youfhave ?/You haven't, have/you? (= Tell me more!)

If our voice goes down on the echo, we confirm what we know or have guessed:

I'm afraid he's made a bad mistake. - He has, hasn'ñhe? (= I confirm what you say.)

or we express anger, surprise, disbelief, etc.:

I've got the sack! - You^iaven't!/You haven't, havèyou?/You have, havéyou?

liliie

Supply different echo tags in response to these statements.

Say the echo tags aloud with different intonation and describe what they express.

1 John's paying 6

2 They aren't very happy 7

3 Suzy was 30 yesterday 8

4 I wasn't very well last week 9

5 He works very hard 10

They don't eat much

You shouldn't be here

I can afford a new car now

We can't go tomorrow

There'll be trouble about this..

13.3D Context

Write: Put in appropriate question tags and echo tags.

' i YOU COULD HAVE KNOCKED ME DOWN WITH A FEATHER!

I asked for my favourite perfume at the perfume counter of a large

department store. 'We don't have that,^1 ?' the snooty

assistant asked her colleague, as if I had just tried to buy a bag of

onions. I was about to leäve the counter when I saw a girl of about

twelve slip away from her mother, seize a huge bottle of perfume from

the counter and put it into her carrier bag. I gasped! 'Excuse me,' I said.

'Your daughter has just stolen a large bottle of perfume!' The mother

looked at me in amazement. 'She^2 ?' 'That's right,' I said.

She turned to her daughter. 'You didn't steal that big bottle that was on

display,^3 ?' The girl nodded. 'You did,^4 ?'

'Yes, mum,' the girl confessed. 'I've told you hundreds of times,

(^5) that the big one on display is a dummy. She angrily
took the bottle from her daughter and put it back on display. 'You should
always take one of the boxed ones at the back,^6? You do
understand that,^7 ?' She helped herself to a boxed one
and both she and her daughter disappeared into the crowd quick as a
flash.
You could have knocked me down!