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tag problem

English translation: A

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:tag problem
Selected answer:A
Entered by: lafresita (X)

13:17 Dec 31, 2005
English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary - Linguistics
English term or phrase: tag problem
This is the girl whose father will go to Spain in order that he can do some research in psychology, ----?

A)isn’t it
B)isn’t she

which one is correct. Tank you very much in advance
danderup
A
Explanation:
isn't - isn't it this girl..
Selected response from:

lafresita (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:41
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
3 +10A
lafresita (X)
5 +1Isn't this the girl whose father will go to Spain in order to do some research in psychology?
Anna Maria Augustine (X)
4 +1Background info - not for points
Kim Metzger
3 +1here:isn't it
Prisma


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


1 min   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +10
A


Explanation:
isn't - isn't it this girl..

lafresita (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Polish
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Jack Doughty
2 mins
agree  Marina Soldati
3 mins
agree  Rachel Fell
1 hr
agree  Yavor Dimitrov
1 hr
agree  francis_agui
3 hrs
agree  Kim Metzger
5 hrs
agree  marybro
5 hrs
agree  Romanian Translator (X)
7 hrs
agree  Alfa Trans (X)
1 day 5 hrs
agree  Rajan Chopra
1 day 21 hrs
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12 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
here:isn't it


Explanation:
Option A is correct here as *isn't it* refers back to the *This is..*.
However this also shows why, in my opinion, it can be rude in English to refer to a person as a thing, an *it*.
I think the sentence should read: *She is the girl........,isn't she*.

Prisma

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Rachel Fell: But the "it" doesn't refer directly to the girl, just to the general state of affairs/reality/"actuality". Your version with "She...she" can also be used, but if e.g. in the girl's presence it could be rude, whereas the original with "it" wouldn't be
1 hr
  -> Thank you Rachel. I still hold that in the sentence *This is ....isn't it* the word *it* refers directly to the word *this*, in a grammatical sense.
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Isn't this the girl whose father will go to Spain in order to do some research in psychology?


Explanation:
It would be best to write the question correctly to start with, really.

Anna Maria Augustine (X)
France
Local time: 05:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 28

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  marybro: also a good option
3 hrs
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Background info - not for points


Explanation:
First of all, it's always a good idea to eliminate non-essential information from a sentence being analyzed.

The essential part of your sentence is:

This is the girl whose father will go to Spain

Compare:
John is going to Spain, isn't he?

In question tags, we usually
1) substitute a pronoun for the noun – "he" for John
2) invert the order of the subject and auxiliary or copula BE in the tag. – isn't he

So technically the tag should be: isn't this? But "this" is simply not used as a pronoun in question tags, nor is "that". We use "it" instead.

That's the postman, isn't it. – NOT isn't that.


Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 21:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 187

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  transparx: for sake of completion, one might want to add that only the personal subject pronouns (I,you,s/he,it,we,they) and the expletive there are used in tag questions: There's a cat on the roof, isn't there?
1 day 14 hrs
  -> It's a complex thing to learn, no?
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