63 Question Tags after Negative Words

A Question Tag is a short question at the end of a sentence which is used to check information, ask for confirmation (negative tag) or agreement (positive tag). {see Question Tags, A2 Level}

Some adverbs have negative meanings (never, hardly, rarely, etc.). So when we use words with negative meaning, we use positive Question Tags.

Positive Question Tags are used after the sentences that have negative words in it. These negative words are usually adverbs (never, seldom, scarcely, hardly, rarely etc.).

The structure is as follows:
Positive sentence with negative statements + comma (,) + positive question tag (?).

• There has never been an exploitation in this company, has there?
• You seldom know about philosophy, do you?
• This is scarcely the time to pose questions, is it?
• They hardly aware of the increase in birth rate, do they?
• People are rarely worried about the bombings nowadays, are they?

The adverbs;

• Never: Not under any condition, not at any time, not any reason;
• Seldom: In a few cases, almost never;
• Scarcely: Probably not;
• Hardly: With difficulty, almost not;
• Rarely: Not often

have negative meanings. Although they are positive in sentence, the meaning of the statement is negative. That is why sentences with these words have negative statements, Question Tag is used positively.