It's a miracle that the child didn't die after the illness, _____?

Analyze the question This is a question tag question. The rule is that the tag must match the main clause of the sentence, with the opposite polarity (positive gives negative tag, negative gives positive tag).

Explain the concept In a sentence with a main clause and a subordinate clause, the tag usually agrees with the main clause. Here:

• Main clause: "It's a miracle" (this is positive, and the subject is "it", the verb is "is")
• Subordinate clause: "that the child didn't die after the illness"

Show the solution

1. The main clause is "It is a miracle", which is positive.
2. So the tag must be negative and use the same verb "is" and the pronoun "it": isn't it?
3. The negative "didn't die" in the subordinate clause does not control the tag. That is the trap in this question, because it tempts you toward "did she?" (A) or "didn't she?" (C).

Checking the other options:

• A. "did she" matches the subordinate clause and is wrong, because the tag does not follow the "that" clause here.
• C. "didn't she" is wrong, since it has the wrong auxiliary and wrong polarity for the main clause.
• D. "wasn't it ones means" is not a grammatical tag.

Full sentence: It's a miracle that the child didn't die after the illness, isn't it?

Tip For question tags, find the main clause first. Ignore the "that..." clause that follows. Quick example: "I think he is coming, isn't he?" works on the same idea of picking out the clause that governs the sentence.