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How to Use Tag Questions

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Teacher: Lai Muhammed is the Minister of Information, isn’t it? Students: Yes it is. Teacher: Abu, you were not in school yesterday, isn’t it? Abu: Yes, it is. Hello lovers of English grammar. Welcome. Today, I will talk on the topic of question tag. A question tag is a yes or no question that is asked immediately after a statement. It is used to change a statement into a question. As you can see from the conversations above, the question tag poses a lot of problems to some people. These problems arise as a result of the fact that most people are oblivious of the fact that there are rules that guide its use. People often fall into the trap of using “isn’t it” as a question tag for every statement they make. In the first example, the teacher is guilty of that.  If you will spare time to read this post to the end, you will, no doubt, be happy that you have, indeed, learnt something. Before I continue, I want you to take a second look at the conversations between
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Concord: Subject-Verb Agreement

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Hello, welcome to Dissecting Grammar. Today, I will like to discuss a very important topic in grammar. I have titled it as “Concord: Subject-Verb Agreement.” Concord is one of the aspects of English grammar that often poses a serious challenge to non native speakers of English language, especially to Nigerian learners of the language. In fact, it is one of the most confused topics in grammar which, indeed, occupies a central place in the grammar of English. One, therefore, needs to master it properly. What, then, is “concord”? Concord has to do with agreement between parts of a sentence. For instance, if a subject consists of a noun phrase and it is singular, e.g. ‘the boy’ then, the verb phrase in the same clause also has to be in the singular form, e.g. ‘hits’ . So you can now have: 1.   The boy hits the table.   Not 2.  The boy hit the table. 3.  The boys hit the table.        Not 4.  The boys hits the table. I want you to know that plural verbs do not appear wi
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WHEN DO I USE “SOME” AND “ANY”?

“Some” and “any” are both quantifiers and determiners that are used to show the quantity or number of something or people. You can use “some ” and “ any” when the number is either not known or not very important. They are both used with countable and uncountable nouns, as well as with singular and plural nouns. They usually modify the nouns they quantify. Examples 1.      I have some money with me here. (The amount is not relevant) 2.      Have you got any friends in Lagos? (“Friends” is a plural countable noun) 3.      I need to take some water now.(“Water” is singular uncountable noun) Now, how then do we really distinguish between “ some ” and “any ”? Take a look at this… Ø “ Some” is used in positive affirmative sentences. Examples 1.      It’s good to have some friends around in times of trouble. 2.      I really need some rest now. Please Note: An affirmative sentence is simply a positive sentence without the negation “ not. ” The sentences a
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