I'm looking for a pair of gloves.
1. Are they for you?
2. Is it for you?
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Which response is right?•English - Reed, Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 7:38am
"Pair" is a singular noun. The plural is "pairs," as in two pairs of gloves. The second response is correct, but we almost never say it that way. Because a pair is always two of something, we say, "Are they...", incorrectly.
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Thank you for your help.
I'm looking for a pair of gloves.
1. Are they for you?
2. Is it for you?
Do you mean #2 is correct? We should not use #2, right? then, What does 'They' refer to? Does 'They' refer to 'the gloves'?
Both are correct, in my opinion, but I lean toward #1.
In #1, "they" is referring to "gloves," but in #2 "it" refers to "pair."
Yes, you are correct. Option #2, "Is it for you?" is the correct way to ask if the pair of gloves is for you. Even though "pair" is a singular noun, we still use "it" instead of "they" because we are referring to the pair as a single unit.
In this case, "it" refers to the entire pair of gloves as a whole. So when asking if the pair of gloves is for you, you would say, "Is it for you?"