Summary Engels I | Market Research & Grammar | Hogeschool Gent | 2026/27

Engels


Unit 01: market research


1.1 MARKET RESEARCH METHODS

Research
Detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover new information or understand
the subject better
 Uncountable noun
o He has dedicated his life to scientific research.
o Countable synonyms: piece of research, study
 Collocations: to do / carry out / conduct research / a study
o He is conducting detailed research into the effects of advertising on children.

Noun:

 a word (other than a pronoun) that names a person, place, thing, or idea (e.g. ‘dog’,
‘beauty’, ‘spiritualism’)

Pronoun:

 a word that replaces a noun in a sentence (e.g. ‘She has been my best friend for 5
years. We do everything together. I love it.”)

Adjective:

 a word that describes a (pro)noun (e.g. ‘a tall person’, ‘He is smarter than his best
friend.”)

Verb:

 Verbs are words that show an action (‘sing’), occurrence (‘develop’), or state of being
(‘exist’).

1.2 WORKING WITH A FOCUS GROUP

Question tags
Turn statements into questions

Definition

Question tags are grammatical constructions attached at the end of a statement to turn it
into a question.
A comma is used just before the question tag.
Question tags are more common in speaking than writing.
In Dutch: hé?, nietwaar?, toch?, of niet/wel? Etc.

Difference between a simple question and a question tag?

 Is he a hard worker?
 He's a hard worker, isn't he?

When you ask a question, you don't know the answer (at all).

When you use a question tag, you expect the listener to agree with your statement. You
assume that the information in the statement is true, and are checking whether the


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listener
agrees.

Use

Question tags are used when we want to check whether our conversation partner agrees
with information that we think is true.

Use: pronunciation

Rising Intonation
John doesn’t speak Spanish, does he?
If the intonation of the question tag goes up, it means you are not sure and you want to
know the answer.

Falling Intonation
John doesn’t speak Spanish, does he?
If the intonation of the question tag goes down, it means you are checking or confirming
information that we are sure of.
It can also be used when making conversation.

Formation

General rule:

If your statement is positive, it is followed by a negative tag;

 You like working as a paralegal, don't you?

and vice versa: if your statement is negative, it is followed by a positive tag.

 You don't like working as a paralegal, do you?

How to recognize positive and negative statements?

Positive statements do not contain any negative elements. Negative statements do.

Negative elements are:

 negative adverbs: not, never, rarely, hardly, barely, neither etc.
He isn’t doing well, is he?
He barely studies, does he?
 negative pronouns: no one, nobody, nothing, neither
Neither of them came, did they?
Nothing was decided, was it?

Referring back correctly

Question tags refer back to two elements of the statement:
1. the subject;
2. the finite verb.

Referring to the subject

To refer back to the subject in the statement, you use a personal pronoun.




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Personal pronouns:
 Subject: I, you, he, she, they, we, you, they
 (Object: me, you, him, her, them, us, you, them)

 In question tags, we always need the subject personal pronouns .

Referring to the subject

1. Sometimes the original subject is already a personal pronoun.

 She is doing well, isn’t she?

2. Sometimes the original subject will not be a personal pronoun, but a noun, a proper
noun/name (= eigennaam), an indefinite pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun, or the word
’there’.

 Indefinite pronouns:
o something, anything, nothing, everything  ‘it’
o someone, anyone, no one, everyone  ‘they’
o somebody, anybody, nobody, everybody  ‘they’
 Demonstrative pronouns:
o this, that  ‘it’
o these, those  ‘they’
 ‘There’:
o there  ‘there’

Referring to the finite verb

To refer back to the finite verb in the statement, you almost always use an auxiliary verb.

1. If there is an auxiliary verb in the statement, we use the same auxiliary to form the
question tag.

 Tom was talking a lot during today’s meeting, wasn’t he?
 They have already given their opinion, haven’t they?
 He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, does he?
 It won’t ever happen, will it?
 He would never do that, would he?

2. If there is no auxiliary verb in the statement, we use the auxiliary ‘do’ in the same
tense as the verb in the statement.

 Mentors often know the company through and through, don’t they?
 He definitely knew what he was talking about, didn’t he?
 Sometimes such things just happen, don’t they?

! There is an exception to this rule: if there is no auxiliary verb in the statement, but the
main verb is ‘be’, then you use ‘be’ in the question tag.

 He’s nice, isn’t he?
 Not all of our customers were happy, were they?
 Everyone in this room is clever, aren’t they?



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