My English Tutor

Pronoun of the subjects in question tag.

Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun.

Eg:  Philip said that he saw  a beautiful car.

Here, Philip is the noun and he is the pronoun. 

That is he is used instead of  the noun Philip to avoid the repetition of the noun like, 

Philip said that Philip saw a beautiful car.

When a ‘noun’ or ‘pronoun’ agrees with a verb in a sentence,  the noun is further called as subject.

That is any noun agreeing with the verb of any sentence can be called subject.

Here, in question tag, as per its pattern, we have to find out  pronouns of the subjects and then it has to be written at the end of the tag before putting the question mark.  That is, we don’t write noun form of the subject in question tag but only its pronoun.

So, let’s look at some subjects and their pronouns given below,  

              Subjects                                                 Pronouns           Question tags

1. Mathew went to school                                       He                      didn’t he?
2. Jancy sings a beautiful song                              She                    doesn’t she?
3. Jacob and his friends were not shocked          They                  were they?
4. A baby is crying                                                    It                        isn’t it?
5. Babies are always sweet                                    They                  aren’t they?
6. A dog barked at me                                              It                       didn’t it?
7. Dogs are always vigilant                                      They                  aren’t they?
8. The pen is so beautiful                                          It                       isn’t it?
9. Sweets often make everybody happy                  They                  don’t they?
10. Knowledge is power                                              It                        isn’t it?
11. Age and experience never fails                          They                  don’t they?
12. The Sun gives us light and energy                        It                       doesn’t it?

Now let’s study some important points from the above sentences.

• If the subject is singular, its pronoun is written according to  its gender.

In the first sentence the subject Mathew is singular and also a masculine gender,  and in the second sentence Jancy is also singular but feminine  gender. That is why the pronouns he and she are written in the first and second question tags respectively.

If the subject is plural, its pronoun will be ‘They’.  Here,  gender doesn’t matter.

In the third sentence we can see the subject ‘Jacob and his friends’  is plural.  So its pronoun is written as they in the question tag.

•   If the subject of a sentence is ‘baby’ or ‘child’, then its pronoun is written as  ‘It’.

Here in the fourth sentence, the subject is baby, that is why  ‘it’ is written as its pronoun in the question tag.

If the singular subject of a sentence is except human beings, its pronoun is always  ‘it’  and  if they are plural, the pronoun will be ‘they’, as seen in the sentences from  6 to 12.

So, we have studied how to make pronouns of subjects for question tags.

Let’s look at some examples given below:

1   Mary  writes blog, doesn’t she?

2   Manuel and his friends will attend the exam, won’t they?

3   All the children did not do their home work, did they? 

4  Birds fly,  don’t they?

5  The child cries loudly, doesn’t it?

6  A pen should always be kept with us, shouldn’t it?

7  She  shall go there,  shan’t she?

8  The sun rises in the East, doesn’t it?

9  People always love their nation, don’t they?

10 Wisdom leads to success, doesn’t it?