Learn English – ‘who is’ or ‘who are’, when the sentence subject is ‘you’

subject-verb-agreement

Here's a sentence:

Are you a parent and is looking for answers on [something]?

My proposed corrections:

  1. Are you a parent and are looking for answers on [something]?
  2. Are you a parent who is looking for answers on [something]? *

My friend argues about the second correction, saying it is incorrect and it should be:

Are you a parent who are looking for answers on [something]? ^

Who is right, and why?

* Justification for who is: The pronoun who refers to a parent, not you.
^ Justification for who are: The subject of the sentence is you, not a parent, hence the verb to be that comes after who must agree with the subject, you.

Best Answer

Looking on the Corpus of Contemporary American English for sentences containing are you a [noun] who I find only sentences like the second one you wrote.

Are you a person who's a long time here?

Are you a poet who's a doctor, or are you a doctor who's a poet?

Is that who you are, or are you a Christian who sings?

The reason is the one you said: The noun phrase requires a verb in the third singular person. It is "a doctor who is a poet" not "a doctor who are poet." You could say "doctors who are poets," but that would mean that the subject of the sentence is plural.

Are you parents who are looking for answers on [...]?

You can also not use "who is" / "who are."

Are you a parent looking for answers on [...]?

In this case, you would be using a present participle phrase that, as all the participle phrases, acts as adjective.

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