We were lucky our driver didn't die in the accident, … ?

Analyze the question This is a question tag question. The sentence is: "We were lucky our driver didn't die in the accident, ........... ?"

Explain the concept A question tag is formed from the main clause of the sentence, not the subordinate clause. The tag:

• uses the same auxiliary/verb as the main clause,
• flips the polarity (positive becomes negative, negative becomes positive),
• uses the matching pronoun.

Show the solution

1. Find the main clause: "We were lucky". The rest, "our driver didn't die in the accident", is a subordinate clause (it tells us what we were lucky about).
2. The main clause is positive and uses the verb "were" with the subject "we".
3. So the tag must be negative: "weren't we?"
4. The negative "didn't die" belongs to the subordinate clause, so it does not decide the tag. This is the trap in the question. Options A and C would be tempting if you looked at "didn't die", but they follow the wrong clause.

Checking the options:

• A. did we: follows the subordinate clause, so it is wrong.
• B. isn't it: wrong tense and pronoun.
• C. didn't we: wrong verb and wrong polarity for the clause.
• D. weren't we: correct. "We were lucky, weren't we?"

Answer The correct option is D. weren't we.

Tip For a tag on a sentence with two clauses, ignore the subordinate clause and build the tag from the main clause. Ask yourself: "Which clause carries the main statement?" Here, it is "We were lucky."