I've been off for a week, so I'm coming in on the tail end of this and probably other threads.  I have an exercise I've used in one form or another with various age groups, and it always provokes interesting questions and discussion.  I got it from an  English grammar text by Terry Langendoen and added a few sentences of my own.  The exercise is called "The Walrus and the Alligator".  Students pair off, one reads aloud a sentence from the exercise, and the other tags it:

A:  It's raining.
B:  Isn't it.

As you get into various auxiliary verbs and complex subjects, problems of what verb to use, gender, number, and even person arise.  Students quickly catch on to how tags are formed, and then they begin to see how complex, subtle, and downright fuzzy apparently straight-forward rules of grammar can be.  I've appended the exercise below.  The OJ examples (42-46) might be a little dated.  A few examples might seem a bit British.

Herb

The Walrus and the Alligator:*
An Exercise in Grammatical Analysis


The task in this exercise is straight-forward.  Simply add question tags to the sentences below as shown in the first five examples.

 
1.   I like pistachio ice cream.  		
        Tagged form:  I like ice cream, don't I?
2.   You don't seem to understand me.  	  
	Tagged form:  You don't seem to understand me, do you?
3.   Your father can do a hundred push-ups.  	
        Tagged form:  Your father can do a hundred push-ups, can't he?
4.   Louise is intelligent.  		   
        Tagged form:  Louise is intelligent, isn't she?
5.   We won't tolerate such nonsense.  		
        Tagged form:  We won't tolerate such nonsense, will we?
 

Now try describing what you have to do to add a grammatical tag to a statement and then go on.  After each set of sentences is a question about sentences like them.
 

 6.  The sky looks threatening.
 7.  I have to go home now.
 8.  I've been waiting a long time.
 9.  I have five cents in my pocket.
10.  I've got five cents in my pocket.
11.  I haven't got five cents to my name.
12.  I have not five cents to my name.

How do you know when to use a negative in a tag?

13.  There's a book on the table.
14.  There isn't any chalk on the rack.
15.  There is no chalk on the rack.
16.  There happen to be six books on the table.

Based on the tag, what’s the subject in these sentences?

17.  I must go home now.
18.  I may not see you tomorrow.
19.  I may see you tomorrow.
20.  You ought not smoke.
21.  You ought to exercise.
22.  I'm not going to the store now.
23.  I'm going to the store now.

What problems do helping verbs present for tag questions?

24.  The boy never watched his sister.
25.  The boy watched his sister at no time.
26.  The boy rarely watched his sister.
27.  The boy watched his sister infrequently.
28.  The boy often watched his sister.
29.  The boy watched no one.
30.  No one watched my sister.

Back to negatives.  How do you tell whether a clause is negative or not?  Is negation a  function of a verb or of a sentence?

32.  Everyone likes her.
33.  Everyone likes one another here.
34.  All the students like one another here.
35.  Everyone likes himself here.
36.  Everyone likes everyone here.
37.  Not everyone likes himself here.
38.  Not everyone likes everyone else here.

What number agreement do you find yourself using with indefinite pronouns?

39.  Few people like her.
40.  A few people like her.
41.  Seldom did anyone say anything.

More on negatives.  What’s the difference between “few” and “a few”?

42.  I believe that O.J. is innocent
43.  "O.J., I believe, is innocent."
44.  "O.J. is innocent, I believe."
45.  I don't think that O.J. is innocent.
46.  "O.J., I don't think, is innocent."

Can you have a tag on a subordinate clause?  If so, when?

47.  One of my friends is coming.
48.  The child is crying.
49.  The baby is crying.
50.  The boat is sinking.
51.  The Queen Mary has made her last voyage.
52.  The Queen Mary has been scrapped.
53.  My cousin is handsome.
54.  My cousin is pretty.
55.  My cousin speaks fluent Mandarin.
56.  My cousin married a son of a millionaire.
57.  My uncle's spouse won't eat caviar.
58.  My father's only child is brilliant.

How do you choose the gender of the tag?

59.  Either the guys or the girls will stay.
60.  Either John or Tom will stay.
61.  Either John or Sue will stay.
62.  Either Sue or John will stay.
63.  Either Leslie or Shelby will stay.
64.  Either Sue or the boys will stay.
65.  Either the girls or John will stay.
66.  Neither John nor Tom stayed.
67.  Neither John nor Sue stayed.
68.  Either all the boys or none of them will stay.
69.  Either none of the boys or all of them will stay.
70.  Either Sue or Mary will stay.

Disjunctive subjects cause a particular problem for tags.  How do you choose which subject--or both--to tag?

71.  All of us will stay.
72.  None of us will stay.
73.  Each of you will stay.
74.  Each of the guys will stay.
75.  Each of us is staying.

And quantifiers again.  How do you decide what’s singular and what’s plural?
 


*from D. Terence Langendoen, Essentials of English Grammar, New
York:  Holt Rinehart and Winston.
1970.  Pp. 10-32.

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