Question

Add a question tag to the given statement:
You’re looking for Ann. Perhaps Kate knows where she is. Ask her.
Kate, you know where Ann is, _____________________?
a. Do you?
b. Don’t you?
c. Have you?
d. Haven’t you?

Answer 1

Hint: Question tags are used to turn a statement into a question which we often use to check information that we think is true. The basic formula is – positive statement + negative tag and vice-versa.

Complete solution: As you must know a tag question is a statement + mini-question. We use tag questions to ask for confirmation.
Now, the two basic rules about tag questions are:
If the statement is negative, the tag must be positive. If the statement is positive the tag must be negative.
The tense of the tag is determined by the tense of the auxiliary/modal verb of the statement that precedes it.
As stated earlier if a sentence is in positive the tag has to be negative, since the above given question is positive the tag has to be negative.
Now, what does this do? It eliminated options – a & c as both are positive tags. This leaves us with options – b & d.
Option b – has a negative tag and uses the verb needed, i.e. doesn’t change the verb. Whereas,
Option d – changes the verb (have is a verb of possession & that is not what we are talking about in the question), that is why it is not the correct option even if it has a negative tag.
So, it is clear that the correct solution for the question is option – b.


Note: Keep in mind that you do not change the meaning, tense and verb of the given sentence. Otherwise, it will have a different meaning than what the question is trying to convey.