Unit 27: Job hunting success... and failure
Question tags
Select a unit
- 1 Nice to meet you!
- 2 What to wear
- 3 Like this, like that
- 4 The daily grind
- 5 Christmas every day
- 6 Great achievers
- 7 The Titanic
- 8 Travel
- 9 The big wedding
- 10 Sunny's job hunt
- 11 The bucket list
- 12 Moving and migration
- 13 Welcome to BBC Broadcasting House
- 14 New Year, New Project
- 15 From Handel to Hendrix
- 16 What's the weather like?
- 17 The Digital Revolution
- 18 A detective story
- 19 A place to live
- 20 The Cult of Celebrity
- 21 Welcome to your new job
- 22 Beyond the planets
- 23 Great expectations!
- 24 Eco-tourism
- 25 Moving house
- 26 It must be love
- 27 Job hunting success... and failure
- 28 Speeding into the future
- 29 Lost arts
- 30 Tales of survival
Session 3
Have you ever had a job interview that went really badly? What could happen in the worst interview ever? In this session, you'll hear an interview based on a true story. You'll also have a chance to explore the pronunciation and form of question tags.
Activity 2
Spotting the wrong question tags
Can you correct the mistakes?
We've seen and heard a few question tags in the job interview between Mark and Simon. Here are five question tags for you to listen to again, but three of them are wrong. Listen to the recording and see if you can spot them.
Listen to the audio and complete the activity
One
This isn't really relevant, can't we?
Two
This isn't going to affect my interview, is it?
Three
I know you, do you?
Four
You were on the Northern Line this morning, don't I?
Five
We haven't met before, have we?
So questions two and five were correct. One, three and four were all the wrong question tags.
To do
Can you choose the correct question tags? Try out this activity. If you need some help, check out the session grammar box.
Find the correct question tags
5 Questions
Listen to the audio on this activity page. Then try to choose the correct question tag forms for each of these questions.
Help
Activity
Listen to the audio on this activity page. Then try to choose the correct question tag forms for each of these questions.
Hint
Remember that the verb in the tag needs to match the statementQuestion 1 of 5
Help
Activity
Listen to the audio on this activity page. Then try to choose the correct question tag forms for each of these questions.
Hint
Remember that the pronoun in the tag should match the pronoun in the statementQuestion 2 of 5
Help
Activity
Listen to the audio on this activity page. Then try to choose the correct question tag forms for each of these questions.
Hint
Remember that the verb in the tag should match the verb in the statementQuestion 3 of 5
Help
Activity
Listen to the audio on this activity page. Then try to choose the correct question tag forms for each of these questions.
Hint
Remember that if there is an auxiliary verb in the statement then the verb in the tag needs to matchQuestion 4 of 5
Help
Activity
Listen to the audio on this activity page. Then try to choose the correct question tag forms for each of these questions.
Hint
The pronoun in the statement and the tag need to matchQuestion 5 of 5
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
End of Session 3
That's it for this session! We hope you found the terrible job interview story interesting and learnt a little about the intonation of question tags! Join us in Session 4 - we have some top tips for you to have a great job interview!
Session Grammar
Question tags turn a statement into a question by adding a 'tag' at the end.
The tag is a short 'yes/no' question.
In the simplest form, when the statement is positive, the question tag is negative. When the statement is negative, the question tag is positive.
The meeting is at three o'clock, isn't it?
You haven't prepared properly, have you?The subject pronoun in the statement and the question tag is the same:
You haven't prepared, have you?
This programme is really good, isn't it?
The boss is really nice, isn't she?The verb in the statement and the question tag match if there is an auxiliary verb (like have in the present perfect, be in continuous forms, or modal verbs like can and would).
We can make this happen, can't we?
You haven't met the new secretary, have you?
The boss isn't coming to this meeting, is she?If the statement only has a main verb in positive or negative forms, we make the question tag with do, don't, does or doesn't.
We know the answer, don't we?
He works for that other company, doesn't he?
The boss doesn't like too many spreadsheets, does she?