Tag question The problems which a Thai speaker faces in learning negation and question format in English are compounded when a Thai speaker attempts to handle tag questions, for this involves both negation and question formation. All tag questions in English are restricted the following requirements: 1. If the sentence contains an auxiliary verb or the verb Be, the auxiliary verb or the verb Be is used in the tag question. 2. If the sentence contains only a verb, the auxiliary verb Do is used in the tag question with the appropriate inflection. 3. If the sentence is affirmative, the tag question is negative; if the sentence is negative, the tag question is affirmative. 4. Every tag question must contain a pronoun subject. 5. The negative particle is always contracted in tag questions 6. The word order of tag questions parallels the word order of regular questions.
In contrast to the uniformity of the tag questions in Thai (/chay may/), there a diversity of forms in English (isn't he, is he, and doesn't he). Obviously, tag questions in English will present a real problem to the Thai speaker. and mistakes of the following kind will be abundant:
Aside from the problem of grammatically, there is also the problem of the correct usage of tag questions. This is not as difficult for Thai speakers as selecting the correct grammatical from because there are two question particles in Thai which negative-based questions. The previous examples are cited again to show this correspondent between English and Thai:
In both languages, affirmative-based questions (first example) are straightforward and do not imply any perplexity. Negative-based questions, on the other hand imply that the questioner is perplexed and does not expect a negative answer to his question. Because of the similarity of the patterns of usage between the two languages, then, Thai speakers do not find it difficult to know when to use negative-based questions. A real problem arises however, when a Thai speaker attempts to answer these tag questions in English, however, for here the two languages differ dramatically. In English, the inherent truth of the question is affirmed or negated in the Yes-No answer, regardless of whether the question is affirmative or negative. In Thai, the form of the question is affirmed or negated in the Yes-No answer, regardless of whether the question is inherently true or false:
Notice whereas the answer to the two different questions are identical in English, the answer are that's so (yes) and that's not so (no) in Thai. Because Yes-No answer are extremely important to the understanding of spoken English, the answering of Yes-No tag questions in English is extremely confusing and is a source of much misunderstanding for Thai speakers. It is important that the Thai students understand Yes-No answer quite thoroughly. Often it is helpful to point out that English answer are dependent entirely on hear whether the question was negative-based or affirmative-based, to be able to know whether to answer Yes or no. Through careful effort and practice, it is hoped that every student will be able to know that the answer to: