Thread: Help me with a question in Grammar!

Hello everybody!
My name is Eugenia. I am from Russian city Tula. I study English and now I have a problem – I have a question in Grammar. So … there are so-called tag questions. For example, “I read a book, don’t I?” Do not pay attention to the sense of the sentence. And what should I do in the case of such sentence: “I am a good girl, aren’t I?”
“I am a good girl, ain’t I?” or maybe a stupid variant am I not?
Help me, please. Send your answers to my e-mail: JaneLapa@yandex.ru

Your sentence: "I read a book, don’t I" should be "I read books, don't I?", "I'm reading a book, aren't I?" or "I read a book, didn't I?" or if you want to use the present simple "I read a book everyday, don't I?"

Tag questions use either the verb in the main sentence (to be / to do) in the main sentence in the opposite form. In the first example

You use don't I because of this:

Someone says to you "You don't read books," And because I'm wrong you answer "I do read books." So the person asking the question knows that they were wrong, because they thought that you don't read books and you said that you do.

So if you want to take this statement, "I do read books." and put a tag question you take the verb "do" and use it in the tag i.e. "I read books, don't I" the opposite of this sentence is "I don't read books, do I?"

With "I'm reading a book, aren't I?" We take the verb "am" (to be) and change it for the tag to "aren't" while it should be "am I not" "aren't I" is more common...but not "ain't" becuase we've been told by our teachers for years and years and years that "ain't I" is wrong. We sometimes say "Ain't ain't a word" but in some dialects of english it is acceptable and in scotland I think they use "amn't" The opposite of "I'm reading a book, aren't I?" is "I'm not reading a book, am I?"

"I read a book, didn't I?" uses didn't because it's talking about the past. Once again think about someone saying this and you telling them they're wrong. "You didn't read a book" you say "I did read a book!" so using a tag: "I read a book, didn't I?" and the opposite: "I didn't read a book, did I?"

Or you can say "I read a book everyday, don't I?" because to read in this tense means that it's an action that occurs in general. Someone says "You don't read a book everyday" you reply, telling them they're wrong, "I do read a book everyday" thus the tag, you take the opposite of "do" and say "I read a book everyday, don't I?" or the opposite "I don't read a book everyday, do I?"

So tag questions tag the form of "to be" or "to do" that is used or could be used in the main sentence and then uses the opposite in the tag...

Thank you very much for the reply! I have understood everything! THANKS! I can help you with Russian if you want