Instead of saying:
- "It's only you who have that book, isn't it?"
can we say,
- "Isn't it only you who have that book?"
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I think it's technically correct, but awkward.– Hot LicksCommented Nov 9, 2014 at 23:50
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Cross-posted to ELL: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/38956/…– user28567Commented Nov 18, 2014 at 18:32
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1 Answer
You could. However, both of those variants sound rather stiff and old-fashioned to my ear. Today, a more conversational wording would be "It's only you that has that book, isn't it?"
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Thank you. However, can we use "has" as the verb? I mean, the verb doesn't agree with the subject "you", does it? Commented Nov 9, 2014 at 5:39
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No, in terms of formal grammar it doesn't agree. However, in an informal conversational context, the alternative wording I supplied is perfectly acceptable. I'd go so far as to say that to use have there would actually strike a false note. Commented Nov 9, 2014 at 6:35
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It's perfectly fine and it's formal. Have would be incorrect. This is a cleft sentence and you is not the subject; it's the predicate noun. Commented Nov 9, 2014 at 9:15
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1I would probably say "You're the only one who has that book, aren't you?" Commented Nov 9, 2014 at 10:48
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We have a dedicated question for that. Any follow-up discussion not related to the question at hand should be taken there. Commented Nov 9, 2014 at 18:44