Question tag

[Anonymous]

Hello!

Which sentence it's correct?:

1- I am the captain of the team, am not I?
2- I am the captain of the team, aren't I?

1- There is/are a book/two books on the table, isn't it/isn't they?
2- There is/are a book/two books on the table, isn't there/aren't there?

- You can swin, can't/cannot you?

When must I use "since", "for" and "during"?

When must I use "last", "the last" and "the last one"?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I will respond to a couple of sentences in your posting.




Which sentence it's correct?:

1- I am the captain of the team, am not I? --- "am not I?" should be changed to "am I not?"
2- I am the captain of the team, aren't I? ---incorrect

1- There is/are a book/two books on the table, isn't it/isn't they? ---incorrect
2- There is/are a book/two books on the table, isn't there/aren't there? --- correct

- You can swin, can't/cannot you? ---can't you?/can you not?

When must I use "since", "for" and "during"?

When must I use "last", "the last" and "the last one"?

[Pete]

-- Plin answered several of your questions. (Thanks, Plin.) Here are my replies to the others.

- You can swim, can't/<strike>cannot</strike> you? [The natural tag here is, "can't you".]

>When must I use "since", "for" and "during"?
-- Since a point in time: "He has worked there since June 2001."
-- For an amount of time: "He has worked there for three years."
-- During a period of time or something that occurred over a period of time: "He was president during the 1970s." "They had a hard time getting by during the war."

When must I use "last", "the last" and "the last one"?
-- Use last as an adjective or adverb: "John came last." "The last Harry Potter book was the most exciting."
-- I think "the last" and "the last one" can often be used interchangeably. Probably in everyday speech, native speakers would more often say "the last one". In many cases, "the last" means the same thing but sounds more formal to me: "We interviewed three people for the job and then hired the last one/the last."

There may well be other specific cases that I can't think of.