Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate question tag:
There are a lot of books in the library, _____?
A) Are there
B) Aren’t there
C) Is there
D) Isn’t there

Answer 1

Hint: The question has asked us to fill the blank with a question tag. Question tags can either be positive (is it?) or it can be negative (isn’t it?). The positive question tag is always used with a negative sentence, while the negative question tag is always used with a positive sentence.

Complete answer:
To choose which option is correct, we must first understand the nature of the statement in the question. The statement provides a positive fact that there are lots of books. It does not use negative words like ‘no’, ‘not’, ‘never’ etc. Hence the statement is positive. Therefore, the question tag should be a negative one.

Now let us look at the given options:
Option A) Are there – ‘Are there’ is a positive question tag. A positive question tag is always used with a negative sentence. For e.g. There are not many books here, are there? This is a negative statement with the positive question tag. The statement given in the question is a positive sentence. Therefore, we cannot use ‘are there’. This option is incorrect.
Option B) Aren’t there – ‘Aren’t there’ is a negative question tag. It is supposed to be used with a positive sentence. As we know, the sentence given in the question is positive, the blank can be filled with ‘aren’t there’. “There are a lot of books in the library, aren’t there? This option is correct.
Option C) Is there – ‘Is there’ is again a positive question tag. It can only be used with a negative sentence and the statement given in the question is a positive statement. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
Option D) Isn’t there – ‘Isn’t there’ is a negative question tag and can be used with positive statements. The sentence given in the question is a positive sentence, but we still cannot use ‘isn’t there’ with it. This is because the sentence talks about a plural object i.e. books, but the question tag uses a singular verb i.e. isn’t (which should have been ‘aren’t’). Therefore this option is incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (B) There are a lot of books in the library, aren’t there?

Note: Question tags are generally used to confirm, or make sure that the statement said earlier is correct. That is why a positive statement uses a negative tag, in order to cross check the fact. For e.g. ‘He went to the shop, didn’t he?’ We state the fact that he went to the shop. But we might not be sure about the fact and want to cross check it. So we add the negative question tag, ‘didn’t he’.