[Grammar] Rules on Tag Questions

[7Day-English]

Dear Sir,

I have been using this site to educate myself for quite some times now. And I also use this site as a reference to tech my children general usage of English Language especially for communication purposes. The following are some grammar quizzes which I had taken and some of the answers I couldn't understand why such plural WORD is being used in the tag question instead of a singular PRONOUN.

Here are some of the questions that need to be explained.

Q34 - That's the guy who was on TV the other night, .......?

isn't that

isn't it (Why “isn't it” is used as a pronoun in Tag question and not "isn't that"?) What is considered as the main subject of the sentence?

Q35 - That's the guy that won the pools, ........?

isn't it (and Q 35 is the same thing. Why use “isn't it” in tag question and not "isn't he"?)

isn't he

Can someone help explain the reason for the two questions above.

Thank you so much.

7 Day-English

 

[emsr2d2]

[STRIKE]Dear Sir,[/STRIKE] Unnecessarily formal and excludes all our female members. Stick with "Hello".

I have been using this site to educate myself for quite some [strike]times[/strike] time now and I also use this site as a reference to teach my children general usage of English [STRIKE]Language[/STRIKE] especially for communication purposes. The following are some grammar quizzes which I [STRIKE]had[/STRIKE] have taken [STRIKE]and[/STRIKE] but I couldn't understand some of the answers. [STRIKE]I couldn't understand[/STRIKE] Why [STRIKE]such plural WORD[/STRIKE] is the word "it" [STRIKE]being[/STRIKE] used in the tag question instead of a singular PRONOUN.

Here are some of the questions that need to be explained.

Q34 - That's the guy who was on TV the other night, ...

... isn't that?
... isn't it?

Why is “isn't it” [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] used [STRIKE]as a pronoun[/STRIKE] in the tag question and not "isn't that"?
What is considered [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] to be the main subject of the sentence?

Q35 - That's the guy that won the pools, ...
... isn't it? [STRIKE](and Q 35 is the same thing.[/STRIKE]
... isn't he?
Why [STRIKE]use[/STRIKE] is “isn't it” used in the tag question and not "isn't he"?
Can someone help explain the reason for the two questions above.

Thank you so much.

[STRIKE]7 Day-English [/STRIKE] Unnecessary. We can see your username on your post.

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

Note my corrections above. I don't know what the links were supposed to be but there was something wrong with the coding and no images appeared. I have removed them.

The tag questions we use are "isn't it" with "this and that" and "aren't they" with "these" and "those".

That is my car, isn't it?
This is your house, isn't it?

Those are your shoes, aren't they?
These are my keys, aren't they?

When personal pronouns are used, we use the same in the tag question as we do at the beginning of the question.

He is a nurse, isn't he?
She is a doctor, isn't she?
You are married, aren't you?
We're leaving the house at 7am, aren't we?
They are carpenters, aren't they?

Note that when we use the first person singular, "I am" at the beginning becomes "aren't I?" at the end. There are a few BrE dialects which use "amn't I" but it's not common and I certainly don't recommend that you use it.

I am very beautiful, aren't I?

In your example about the man who won the pools, there are two possible variations:

That's the guy who won the pools, isn't it?
He's the guy who won the pools, isn't he?