Choose the correct option and rewrite the sentence according to the instruction given after each.
Arun and Nikhil had climbed the mountain. (Add a question tag)
Topic: Question tags
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Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.
Answer
(c) Arun and Nikhil had climbed the mountain, hadn’t they?.
Two rules govern every question tag:
- a POSITIVE statement takes a NEGATIVE tag (and vice versa)
- the tag repeats the AUXILIARY of the main verb, with the subject as a pronoun
The statement is positive, so the tag is negative — which eliminates (b) and (d). The auxiliary is HAD (past perfect), so the tag is "hadn’t they?"
Option (a) is the trap: "didn’t they" would be right for "Arun and Nikhil CLIMBED the mountain" (simple past), but the sentence uses HAD climbed. When an auxiliary is present, the tag takes THAT auxiliary; "do/does/did" appears only when there is none.
The pronoun is "they" because the subject is two people.
Arun and Nikhil had climbed the mountain, hadn’t they?.