Who/What

Question

Good morning.Smudge and Foofy are two hamsters.Can I ask the following: "Who are Smudge and Foofy?"?Or am I obliged to say: "What are... ?"Thank you.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

slocawberSmudge and Foofy are two hamsters.Can I ask the following: "Who are Smudge and Foofy?"?

Yes.

slocawberOr am I obliged to say: "What are... ?"

No.

Khoff · Answer

It depends on what you know when you ask the questions. If your friend says to you "I was late to work this morning because Smudge and Foofy are sick," you don't necessarily know that they are animals, so you might ask "Who are Smudge and Foofy?" But if someone has just shown them to you and you don't know if they're guinea pigs or hamsters or wolverines, you would say "What are Smudge and Foofy?"

(Of course, "Smudge and Foofy" are not likely to be the names of the speaker's children or neighbors. If the hamsters were named Mike and Bob, the listener would be more likely to ask "Who are Mike and Bob?")

In other words, if you think they might be people, (or even pets that people treat as members of the family) you would probably say "who." If you think they're animals or toys or cartoon characters, you would probably use "what."

Who/What

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