Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

sleeper · Joined: 07 Nov 2005 Posts: 67

Hi, there !

Today I'd like to ask you about 'Who / What is ...?' questions.
Look at the following sentences.

#1. Who is Mark? - He is John's brother.
#2. Who is Ms. Carter? - She is Mike's teacher.
#3. Who is Mr. Williams? - He is my father's friend.

In my opinion, sentences #2 and #3 should be 'What is ...?"
What do YOU think?

How about sentence #1?
What is your your comment?

I'm waiting for your kind explanation.

Thanks. Smile

KazAV · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:13 pm Post subject:

We always use who for questions involving people so the questions are correct as they are.

Jintii · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 111 Location: New York City

I agree with KazAV. Who is correct in all three questions.

You could use what if you change the questions and answers a little. For example, you could ask:

What is Ms. Carter's profession/What does Ms. Carter do? - She is a teacher. (Not She is Mike's teacher, because a profession is more than being the teacher of one particular student.)

What is Mr. Williams' relationship to your family? - He's my father's friend.

In both of my examples, what refers to a thing (profession and relationship), not a person . That's why it works in these examples, but not in your original questions.[/i]