Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I hope I can word this one correctly. I have a question about the following situations:

Situation 1
(there's a knock at the door)
A: Who is it?
B: It's Jeff and Amy.

Situation 2
A: Look everyone! It's Jack and Jill!

Situation 3
A: Who is hiding behind the curtain?
B: It's Tom and Ben.

Q: In these situations, what is the reason that "it's" is used instead of
"We are" or "They are"? Are the two people considered as a single unit? I can't find anything in my grammar books to support this.

Thanks if you can help with this question.

[koreatimes]

I don't think there is a rule that justifies it. I compared it to "There's" and "There are". I feel "There's" indicates emphasis more, almost like an exclamation mark.

[raewon]

Thanks for the reply. Then in all three situations, would either way be OK?
I cannot see anyone using "We are" in Situation 1 (and to me "They are" sounds unnatural in Situations 2 and 3 as well), which is why I'm trying to something to back the use of "It's."

[koreatimes]

There is also another plausible answer, and it is similar to how we use definite and indefinite articles.

You would introduce new information with "a" and then use "the" after. In a similar way, we wouldn't use "we" or "they" to introduce new information.

Examples:

Q: Who is it?
A: It's me. / It's us.

Compare that with:

Q: Who are you? Who are they?
A: I am _. / They are __.

[Jubalum]

This situation causes some debate.

In general, English speakers tend to use a dummy pronoun + object pronoun when identifying unknown individuals.

A dummy pronoun is a pronoun (he, she, it, etc) that doesn't replace a specific noun (a word that doesn't refer to anything). For example, the "it" in "it's raining" or "It's too bad that..."

So, the correct forms would be "it's me" or "it's us."

Some grammarians argue that the correct form should be "It's I." However, this seems a bit pedantic since I doubt many people actually speak that way.

Here's a link to some additional info:

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/104504-it.html

[The Cosmic Hum]

...well put Jubalam.

This is a case of the dummy subject.

It would be incorrect to use the plural subject pronouns in those positions in those examples.

Who is it?...it... is requesting a dummy subject response.

For any of these you could replace the dummy subject with the actual nouns then follow with subject verb agreement.
Who is it?
Jeff and Amy are at the door. Jeff and Amy are here.
or simply
Jeff and Amy.

Look everyone! Jack and Jill are falling down the hill.

Who is hiding behind the curtain?
Tom and Ben.
Tom and Ben are hiding behind the curtain.

You are correct in that the plural nouns are being represented as a singular conceptual entity in the dummy subject.

[jamasian]

[koreatimes]