سؤال وجواب :السؤال جميل والرد اجمل

[ابو بيشو]

قواعد
What are the correct answers? (1) Each one of them is absent, ......? (isn't he?) or (aren't they) (2) The infant is very hungry, .....? (isn't he?) or (isn't it?)
Sender
Hisham
Position
Student
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These are very good questions, but I hope nothing like them shows up on exams. The first, in particular, is among the types of questions that professional editors love to argue about.
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These answers are based on The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language and the corpus-based Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English.
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Each one is syntactically singular and would usually take a singular pronoun in a tag question. Thus, if the sentence were
Each one of the boys is absent, isn't he? or Each one of the apples is rotten, isn't it? there would be no problem of agreement.
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A problem arises because in modern English there is a strong tendency to avoid what is seen as ***ist language. Many people no longer see he as a gender-neutral pronoun.
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The pronoun they has been used with a singular meaning since Middle English and is commonly used this way in informal language. However, many people still avoid such use in formal language.
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Tag questions are more common in informal language than formal, so therefore, if I had to choose between these two, I would choose the second one:Each one of them is absent, aren't they?
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But in real life I don’t think I would say such a sentence to begin with. I would be more likely to say They’re all absent, aren't they? and thus avoid the whole issue of agreement.
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In the second sentence, the word infant belongs to a small group of words referring to a human that often take it when the *** of the person is unknown. (Baby, child, and fetus are also in this group.) Therefore, if I had to choose in an exercise or a test, I would answer The infant is very hungry, isn't it?

In real life I would probably go up to the parent and say Why don’t you feed the kid?

[ابو بيشو]

I am his nephew,aren't I?
Begin with:He is