| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| This pattern is the structure that all of our examples will follow. |
| Subject + simple past/present perfect verb phrase + question tag |
| Let’s go part by part. |
| The subject is the first part of the sentence — the person, place, or thing the speaker is talking about. |
| The verb phrase tells us what the subject is doing or what state it’s in. It includes any auxiliary verbs, helping verbs, or tense markers needed to express the time or nature of the action. |
| The question tag is a short question added to the end. It matches the subject and tense of the sentence and usually changes to the opposite: if the sentence is positive, the tag is negative — and vice versa. |
| Now let’s look at the example sentence: |
| “The business has been going well, hasn’t it?” |
| Here, the subject is “The business.” |
| The verb phrase is “has been going well.” It describes the current situation and uses the present perfect continuous tense to show that this state has been ongoing. |
| The question tag is “hasn’t it?” It repeats the auxiliary verb “has” and adds “not” to form the negative, since the main statement is positive. |
| So the full sentence follows the pattern: |
| Subject (“The business”) + verb phrase (“has been going well”) + question tag (“hasn’t it?”) |
| This structure is used to confirm that the speaker’s understanding is correct. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| You were on the basketball team last year, weren't you? |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| “You” is a pronoun and the subject. “Were on the basketball team last year” is the verb phrase. Then we have the question tag “weren’t you?” at the end to confirm the information. So this fits the full structure: Subject + verb phrase + question tag. The speaker believes it's true and is checking that the listener agrees. |
| Next... |
| They wanted to take tennis lessons, didn't they? |
| Here, “They” is a pronoun and the subject. “Wanted to take tennis lessons” is the verb phrase, expressing a past desire. The tag “didn’t they?” matches the past simple tense and checks for confirmation. So we have: They + wanted to… + didn’t they? |
| Let's try one more, |
| You've been fishing before, haven't you? |
| “You” is a pronoun and the subject. “Have been fishing before” is the present perfect verb phrase. The tag “haven’t you?” matches that tense and checks if the listener agrees. |
| Another one. |
| He opened a savings account, didn't he? |
| In this example, “He” is the subject, and “opened a savings account” is the past simple verb phrase. The tag “didn’t he?” confirms the action. |
| One last example. |
| The kids haven't come home yet, have they? |
| Here, “The kids” is a noun phrase and acts as the subject. “Haven’t come home yet” is the verb phrase in the present perfect negative form. The tag “have they?” flips to the positive form for balance, which is how question tags work with negatives. It’s still: Noun + verb phrase + question tag. |
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