Who check/s, Who is/are?

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Who checks the work done by the workers?
Who check the work done by the workers?

Who is online?
Who are online?

Are both pairs of sentences correct? Thanks.

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 736 • Replies: 20

[+3] - contrex - 12/20/2016Following up my earlier reply: A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985 Quirk et al.), page 756: [quote]...interrogative who and what as subjects normally take a singular verb even...
[+3] - contrex - 12/21/2016[quote="dalehileman"]no, "who are online?" in question form is bad grammar. ... I find that very hard to believe.[/quote] You could ask "Who are the people online?"...

@tanguatlay,

no, the second sentence in each instance is incorrect...

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

Region Philbis wrote:

no, the second sentence in each instance is incorrect...

Thanks, Region. Could you please explain why the second sentence in each case is wrong?

1 Reply

@tanguatlay,

Phil think that over, esp in the 2d instance. While I might agree "check" isn't quite collo, "are" is perfectly okay, esp if one happens to be aware of multi contributors

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

no, "who are online?" in question form is bad grammar.

who is online?
who are the people that are online?

dalehileman is online.
five people are online.

2 Replies

@tanguatlay,

tanguatlay wrote:

Could you please explain why the second sentence in each case is wrong?

Let me! Questions of the form "who [verb phrase]" always use the third person singular of the verb, even if it is possible that the answer may be about more than one person.

Teacher: Who knows the capital of Japan?
Multiple children: I do!

Q: Who is the boss in this office?
A: Joe Smith.

Q: Who is working late today?
A: John, Mary and Anne.

However who are... questions are possible e.g. who are the people in this photograph? Who are the men in that car? Who are the children playing ball?

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@Region Philbis,

Region Philbis wrote:

no, "who are online?" in question form is bad grammar.

who is online?
who are the people that are online?

dalehileman is online.
five people are online.

Thanks, Region. That means "who" must be followed by a plural verb at all times. Am I right?

1 Reply

@tanguatlay,

tanguatlay wrote:

That means "who" must be followed by a plural verb at all times. Am I right?

No.

0 Replies

Following up my earlier reply:
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985 Quirk et al.), page 756:

Quote:

...interrogative who and what as subjects normally take a singular verb even when the speaker has reason to believe that more than one person or entity is involved. However, a plural verb may be used if other words in the sentence indicate that a plural subject is expected in the answer

However in the same book:

Quote:

even though several voices are heard outside, the natural question will be Who's there? rather than Who're there?

1 Reply

@contrex,

Thanks, contrex, for your reply.
Thanks also for quoting from the grammar book.
I deeply appreciate your help.

0 Replies

@Region Philbis,

Quote:

no, "who are online?" in question form is bad grammar.

Phil I find that very hard to believe. However I was astounded by the reaction of my BH who agreesd with you and who I'm sure you'll concur is much smarter than I

"There's no noun, or something," says she

And to think, after BS in journ I spent a lifetime on and off in the that field

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

no, "who are online?" in question form is bad grammar.
... I find that very hard to believe.

You could ask "Who are the people online?" if you believed, and expected the answer to convey, that a number of people are online (i.e. that you were explicitly asking about more than one person). You would not just ask simply "Who are online?", because the default form of "who" or "what" questions uses the singular verb - "Who is online?" "Who likes bacon?" etc.

Quote:

after BS in journ I spent a lifetime on and off in the that field

Having a degree in journalism, or being employed in that field (or both) is no guarantee of comptency in grammar.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

no guarantee of comptency

That's certainly true Con but with that spelling aren't you afraid of all those critics hereabout who seem terribly angry at all times about nearly everything

Jut kidding Con, realize was typo

http://able2know.org/topic/359224-1

Still Who are online? would be perfectly okay in certain context

2 Replies

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

with that spelling aren't you afraid of all those critics hereabout

Yup.

0 Replies

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Still Who are online? would be perfectly okay in certain context

Time for you to **** or get off the toilet. Give an example conversation or other context in which that would be "perfectly okay".

1 Reply

@contrex,

Half of that group of rascals are offline and half on. It's very important for me to know specifically: Who are online?

1 Reply

Nope, if you put the question at the end like that, it should be "Who is online?".

0 Replies

@dalehileman,

no, that's still bad grammar...

you could say "Which of them are online?" or "Who are the ones that are online?"

1 Reply

@Region Philbis,

Guys I'm sure it's some sort of abstruse grammatical rule, but after some 86 years in the field "Who are online" seems just as natural as "Who are in John's bathroom"

I've never felt so alone

Still my BH agrees w/ you guys, " 'Is' can cover multiple people," and so I suppose you're right. What a surprise....

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

Dale, it seems any grammar rule is "abstruse" if you choose not to agree with it.

1 Reply

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