Questions/ who

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Questions/ who
Message from angrepa posted on 29-06-2013 at 00:57:52 (D | E | F)
Hello,

In exercise No.390 - ask questions, sentence 7
The given answer is "Who is Mr Smith?"
Could it be "What does Mr Smith is? or "What is Mr Smith?"
I do not understand why the answer is with "Who...?
Thank you for any explanation

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Edited by lucile83 on 29-06-2013 07:44

Re: Questions/ who from lucile83, posted on 29-06-2013 at 09:04:25 (D | E)
Hello

You can't use 'what' here as Mr Smith is a person.
Who is used for people or pets
What is used for things
It could have been:
what is Mr Smith's job? what does Mr Smith do for a living?
not What is Mr Smith?

Hope this helps.

Re: Questions/ who from gerondif, posted on 29-06-2013 at 11:52:50 (D | E)
Hello angrepa

What does Mr Smith is?

Watch out ! to be is not usually conjugated with do:

1) It is a lexical verb:
I am French, he is absent, they are at school, we are teachers.

2) It is also the auxiliary verb of the ing form, the present continuous:
I'm working, he isn't listening, they aren't working.
You can see that, as an auxiliary verb, you can shorten it, and it takes the negation (not, n't)

So, you can also invert it in the interrogative form:
Is he working ? Yes , he is. Are your parents working ? No, they aren't.

So, 1) will behave like 2), I mean to be always behaves like an auxiliary verb even if it is used as a lexical verb.

The only time when you can use do with to be is when you insist in the imperative form:
Do be reasonable, do be sensible ! Do take a seat and let's talk about it ! Put that gun down !!

Who is Mr Smith? Who's Mr Smith? What is his job ?
What does he do for a living ?
Where does he work ?

Re: Questions/ who from cancok, posted on 15-07-2013 at 17:09:53 (D | E)
Hello,
I have a question concerning this topic.
So, do we use what or who for animals?
Please explain.

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Edited by lucile83 on 15-07-2013 21:31

Re: Questions/ who from lucile83, posted on 15-07-2013 at 23:19:01 (D | E)
Hello,

An animal is like a thing and we use it, what, its, except if it is your pet.In that case we use he/she,his/her,etc.

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