• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Basic Grammar Question

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

My girlfriend and I are having an argument about basic grammar question..

Here is a question:

"Is your family from New York?"

What would be the proper English to respond:
"Yes, we are" or "Yes, it is" ???
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
The answer depends on the different factors, thought process, or circumstance of the person being asked. For instance if that person were to answer "yes, we are" then you can deduce that the person considers himself and his family as one. Hence that person adjusted your question to "are you and your family from new York?". now if that person were to answer "yes, it is" then that person may have decided to alienate his family by calling them "it". Most of the time the answer will be "yes they are; or yes my family is from there/new York", as the person is answering specifically to the question.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What's important here, in my opinion, isn't so much what is proper English, but what is culturally the norm. It just sounds weird to refer to your family as "it". I can't imagine very many circumstances in which I would choose "it", when I could've said "we".
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Now that I think about it, this even works in the third person. Imagine the following conversation.

"My family is from New York"
"No, it's not."

That sounds weird, though it is gramatically correct.

"My family is from New York"
"No, you're not."

Ah, that's better.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I remember that when i was learning "proper English" [i failed that class], we were told that the proper verb in the answer will be the same as in the question...

For example,
"Isn't he......?", "He is..."

"Are they.....?", "No, they are not"

So for my case

"Is your family...", naturally, I answered "No it is not..."
It looks as if it would be much easier just to say "No, my FAMILY is not... blah"
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dlevanchuk said:
I remember that when i was learning "proper English" [i failed that class], we were told that the proper verb in the answer will be the same as in the question...

For example,
"Isn't he......?", "He is..."

"Are they.....?", "No, they are not"

So for my case

"Is your family...", naturally, I answered "No it is not..."
It looks as if it would be much easier just to say "No, my FAMILY is not... blah"
Click to expand...

"No, it is not" is perfectly correct, gramatically speaking. It's just kinda cold, and in my opinion, sounds odd. I would always say, "No, we're not", no matter what the gramatical implications.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I agree with Cracker, we/you/they sounds much more natural than it. If this question is for script writing, it makes much more sense to say the "normal" thing than the one that is completely grammatically accurate.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Problem here is "family" has more than one connotation. Are we talking about his immediate family, like wife and kids, or are we talking about the extended family? If someone asked if my family was from New York, and they were referring to me, my wife and kids (if we had any), then absolutely I would respond, "Yes, we are." But half my ancestral family is from other parts of the globe. So with "family" as all-inclusive in context, I'd respond, "No, it's not."

"Family" is not a he or a she, neither masculine nor feminine, so it is quite proper to refer to "family" as "it". Nuances of character could dictate response. Both responses are grammatically correct. Contextually correct is a different story.

I guess to put a finer point on it, Ted Turner is a relative several times removed, but there's no way I could use him in the context of "we". I certainly don't speak for him.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
VPTurner said:
I guess to put a finer point on it, Ted Turner is a relative several times removed, but there's no way I could use him in the context of "we". I certainly don't speak for him.
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

From a first person you can only use "we" if you can speak for the group. It is in this capacity that the Queen of England can use "we" to describe the citizenry of Great Britain as a whole. Otherwise it becomes "they".

In the 3rd person, a family is a group term so "it" is perfectly correct when refering to the family as a single unit, however; Human dignity oddly enough becomes a factor in this situation. Grahmatically correct or not, it is offensive to use "it" to refer to people because it deny's them their individual identity even in the group. Given that understanding, if people as individuals are implied in the group, "they" is almost* always correct. This concept applies to anything we percieve to have it's own identity.

So you wouldn't refer to an atom as "they" despite being composed of many sub atomic particles, but a pack of wolves might be "they" depending on your perception.

* Almost because at a certain scale the sense of individuality begins to fade into a unit again. An angry mob is more likely to be an "it". When speaking about a population "it" is used more comfortably depite being a group of people.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm with TGWAC, calling the family "They" since it doesn't refer directly to the person being questioned... it wouldn't be "we", but it certainly wouldn't be "It" as we're discussing people. As a director, I think the delivery depends on the speech patterns established for the character, just "Yes" may be a perfect expression of the answer as well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
knightly said:
I'm with TGWAC, calling the family "They" since it doesn't refer directly to the person being questioned... it wouldn't be "we", but it certainly wouldn't be "It" as we're discussing people. As a director, I think the delivery depends on the speech patterns established for the character, just "Yes" may be a perfect expression of the answer as well.
Click to expand...

But here you're talking about political correctness, not grammatical correctness. :D
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm about to end this once and for all:

The correct grammar for your reply, is:

"Do you know who I am?"

And walk away.

People won't respect you if you don't apply the above.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top