It's you who's being crazy

[Nathan Mckane]

Imagine that your freind is suggesting that you smoke and you simply refuse. He accuses you of going crazy. What would be the right answer?

It's you whos's gone crazy.
It's you who's being crazy.

Thanks.

 

[emsr2d2]

Imagine that your friend is suggesting that you smoke and you simply refuse. He accuses you of going crazy. What would be the right answer?

It's you whos's gone crazy.
It's you who's being crazy.

Thanks.

It's you who's going crazy. (Your original used the present continuous so this matches the tense.)

It's you who's crazy!

 

[TheParser]

Imagine that your freind is suggesting that you smoke and you simply refuse. He accuses you of going crazy. What would be the right answer?

It's you whos's gone crazy.
It's you who's being crazy.

Thanks.

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Mr. McKane.

(1) I believe that many books suggest:

It is you who are crazy.

(a) Most books nowadays feel that who refers to you.

(2) Yes, the "correct" answer is:

It (who is crazy) is you.

(a) A noun clause in apposition with It.

(3) But most books now teach that native speakers (at least in the

United States) treat who are crazy as an adjective clause modifying you.

(4) For example:

It is I who am your best friend, not Tony.

Thank you

 

[crazYgeeK]

Hey, what about the TheParser's comment ?
I was taught that all TheParser said is correct.
Or can we use both ways (are/is, ...) ?
Which is more formal ?
Thank you very much !

 

[philo2009]

It is you who are crazy.

is, and has always been, the only correct form in any variety of standard English.

Quite apart from the fact that the antecedent of any relative pronoun is naturally, in any case, the immediately preceding nominal (discounting intervening postmodifiers disallowed as antecedents by either sense or other referential restrictions), the antecedent of 'who' is obligatorily animate: 'it' does not qualify!!

 

[emsr2d2]

I would venture to suggest that, despite the reply above, you will probably hear "is" more often than not in spoken English (by native speakers).

My personal belief for why it's used:

It's you who is going crazy =
It is you [who are the person] who is going crazy. (Here, "who is" agrees with "the person".)

I realise that if it's a Q&A:

Q - Who is going crazy?
A - You are.

is absolutely correct. I have no idea if my statement above (about missing out "who are the person") would be how anyone else explains why they think the construction is so common, but it's the reason I've always assumed leads to a large number of people using it.

I'm not defending it one way or the other - I simply wanted to give what I believe is more commonly heard.

 

[Nathan Mckane]

What about ''It's you who's being crazy'' can it be used in another context?

 

[philo2009]

I would venture to suggest that, despite the reply above, you will probably hear "is" more often than not in spoken English (by native speakers).... I'm not defending it one way or the other - I simply wanted to give what I believe is more commonly heard.

Yes, I wouldn't disagree for a moment that this is the most commonly heard form in daily speech.

For formal/written purposes, however, I would recommend that all learners stick to the classically correct construction!