sentence tags

Sentence tags are short question-like additions on the end of statements. They are sometimes called question tags, but many sentences that use them do not necessarily require an answer. Tone of voice is important in indicating whether the tag is truly a question requiring response or not: a falling tone indicates a statement, a rising tone indicates a question.

Used mainly in the spoken language, sentence tags are intended to check whether the listener agrees with the speaker. For example, ‘It’s warm, isn’t it?’ indicates that the speaker wishes to hear ‘Yes’ as an answer. The form of the tag question changes for each tense and person, and reflects the auxiliary used in the statement.

In English, an affirmative statement, ‘it’s warm’ usually takes a negative tag, ‘isn’t it?’. When the verbs in both sections of the sentences are the same (both affirmative or both negative), this shows either interest in something, e.g. So, it’s green, is it?, or in conjunction with tone of voice, a degree of aggression, e.g. ‘I’m an idiot, am i?’.

In Welsh, however, affirmative statements normally take affirmative tag questions, and negative statements take negative tag questions, e.g. ‘Mae’n gynnes, yn dydy?’; ‘Dydy o ddim yn dod, yn nac ydy’. Initially this might seem contradictory to your English instincts, but it becomes natural with practise.

Note that the negative form can be written ‘nac’ or ‘nag’, and pronounced ‘nag’ (most common), ‘nac’, or ‘nach’. Sentence tags can start with either ‘yn’ or ‘on’, but are usually pronounced as ‘n, e.g. ‘yn d’oes’ is pronounced more like ‘ndoes’. Finally, tags can also have a pronoun appended to them for emphasis, e.g. ‘yn dydw i’. For the sake of simplicity, ‘Yn’ and ‘nac’ are used here throughout, and additional pronouns have been omitted.

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