Question Tags ‘Do’ Verb: Present Tense (II)

OBJECTIVE: Construct do verb question tags in the present tense. PREREQUISITE: The Do Verb (II) If you found the previous exercise interesting and perhaps easily done, I am glad. Problems arise with the present tense. If you have not mastered the work in ‘do’ verb II may be you need to go back and do more practice. However, if you moved through it smoothly, we shall very quickly recapitulate the important points before we move into the lesson proper. You will remember that for the pronoun ‘I’ and other plural subjects (you, we, they, John and Jane) we use do/don’t. On the other hand, for singular subjects (he, she, it, James) we use does/ doesn’t. We will look at sentences with I and the plural subjects first. Further, we shall focus on sentences with positive statements first then move to those with negative statements. Rewrite the following sentences and supply the correct question tag for each. 1) I do speak fluent English. 2) You do speak fluent English. 3) We do speak fluent English. 4) They do speak fluent English. 5) James and Juliet speak fluent English. Now find out how you fared. 1) I do speak fluent English, don’t I? 2) You do speak fluent English, don’t you? 3) We do speak fluent English, don’t we? 4) They do speak fluent English, don’t they? 5) James and Juliet speak fluent English, don’t they? Congratulations are in order if you got all your answers right - and I hope you did not cheat on the punctuation items. If you did not get all your answers right, find out where your problem is, Revise it and move on. Let’s examine the singular subject statements, shall we? 1) He does his work well. 2) She does her work well. 3) It does the work well. 4) Jane does her work well. Now rewrite these sentences and supply the correct question tag for each. 1) He does his work well, doesn’t he? 2) She does her work well, doesn’t she? 3) It does the work well, doesn’t it? 4) Jane does her work well, doesn’t she? How did you fare? Well I hope. Fine, now rewrite all the sentences in the negative then supply the appropriate question tags. e.g. I don’t speak fluent English. He doesn’t do his work well. The correct answers will be: I don’t speak fluent English, do I? He doesn’t do his work well, does he? When you are done, create ten sentences revolving around your experiences and supply the appropriate question tags. First make your statements positive then rewrite them in the negative.