I was talking with someone via Facebook. I thought she was wrong, and she wrote back to me: “No, Donna, it is you who are wrong”. Had she left out the word “who” then I believe “are” would be correct, but since she included the word “who” then it changes to singular “you” which would require the word “is”. I believe it shoud read “No, Donna, it is you who is wrong”. Please help me on this grammatical issue.
It is you who are/is …
July 24th, 2010 by Donna Hansen
6 Responses to “It is you who are/is …”
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Teaching English to Preschoolers with iPhones
We (i.e. the creators of Pain in The English) developed a series of iPhone apps to teach preschool kids how to recognize letters and words. (My wife developed the characters and I did the coding.) Our own 4-year old daughter has been enjoying them. They are now available on Apple's App Store. You can search for "bitskis" on your iPhone, or visit the official website at bitskis.com.
If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
The pronoun “you” always takes a plural verb, even when the object is singular, as in your example.
Leave out the “who” and you’d have either “you are wrong” or “you is wrong”. “Who,” in your example, modifies “you.” It’s neither the subject (“you” is the subject–and there’s an example of an exception to the rule I stated initially, but that’s because what I’m really saying is “The word {fill in the blank} is the subject”) nor the object of the verb “to be.”
Hope this helps!
Donna, it’s you who are wrong. The word “who” is not inherently third-person singular; it takes its person and number from the noun it’s referring to. It can be singular or plural, and first person, third person, or (as in your case) second person.
When you knock at the door do you say “it’s me” or “it is I” ?
Do you say the yolk of an egg IS white or the yolk of an egg ARE white?
Very common mistake. I hear many people who speak English as a first language make it all the time.
An old but informative article on “clefts” (the linguistic term for this kind of sentence) is AKMAJIAN, ADRIAN. 1970. On deriving cleft sentences from pseudo-cleft sentences. Linguistic Inquiry 1.149-168.
Akmajian actually gives data from three dialects that he identifies, which differ in whether the focus must be accusative, and in whether the verb in the cleft clause need agree only in number, or in both number and person. That is, some speakers say, “It is I who do it”; others say, “It is I who does it”; and still others say, “It is me who does it.” If I recall correctly, if the speakers use the accusative form, then the verb following “who” is always third-person singular. That is, no one says, *”It is me who do it.”
Interesting…