A Spanish asks: Who is it? or who is she?

Question

Hi, I'm learning English at home and I'm Spanish speaker; I have a trouble with one question, I don't know if I have to ask with "who is it? or who is she?, when I need to identify one person. I'll show you an example:

I'm with a group of friends, suddenly one beautiful girl is stand opposite of us at the other side of the road, I don't know her, so I ask: "who is it?" or "who is she?".

......

Someone has told me that I must use "who is it?" because I'm asking for information about a person who I don't know, that's about a person who I need to identify.

I hope you'd understood me. Thanks a lot for your answers. Greetings.

Answer 1

En el caso que has citado sería "Who is she?" (acentuando la palabra "she"). Cuando se trata de preguntar por alguien que no conoces (pero cuyo sexo sí sabes) se dice "he" or "she"; traduce ¿Él quién es? o ¿Ella quién es?). También puedes decir "Who is that?" (para ambos sexos), y eso talvez sea lo más usual.

"Who is it?" se dice para identificar a alguien que, por ejemplo, llama a la puerta - cuando no ves si es hombre o mujer, aunque igual podría ser un conocido (como "¿Quién es?" en español".

Si llaman por teléfono y no reconoces la voz también se prodría decir "Who is it?" aunque sería más usual "Who is this, please?", que suena más cortés. Nunca se dice "Who are you?", que en cualquier circunstancia suena muy brusco en inglés.

De otra parte, si otra persona coge el teléfono y te dice "Es para ti" en este caso sí sería más usual decir (a la persona que cogió el teléfono) "Who is it?"

Es un poquito complicado pero espero que te ayude.

A propósito: un español se dice "a Spaniard", y no "a Spanish" en inglés.

Answer 2

Hola.
In the scenario you have described, you can say, 'Who is she?' and it would be perfectly correct and understandable in English. There are other ways of asking the question, as you have in Spanish as well. You could say, 'Who's that?', 'Who's that girl?', etc. , when you can clearly see that it is a girl. English is not very strict on the use of the neuter pronoun 'it' and it is OK to use here if you want. But if some one is calling for you and you want to know who it is, you would not say, 'Who is she?', which is ungrammatical. Rather you would say, 'Who is it?'.

Answer 3

As a Spanish speaker, as well, the correct answer is:

Who is SHE.

Because you are seeing her. Regularly, when someone is on the phone, and you do not know who is on the other side of the line you ask: Who is IT?

Me explico?

Saludos!

p.s. solo una observacion:
Escribiste:
"I hope you'd understood me"

Creo que está mal, sería:

I hope you'd understand me. Significando "you'd" como "you did" y no como " you would"

Otras formas:
"you understand me" o "you understood me"

Answer 4

As far as I'm concerned either would be fine. Or you might ask: "who's that girl over there?"
One small correction. At the top of your question you wrote: "A Spanish asks"; you should have written,"A Spaniard asks."

Answer 5

'Who is it?' is what you say when you don't know the person and when you don't know the person's SIGNIFICANCE to you. If you see the person as a potentialy significant to you (friend or enemy) you would use the pronoun appropriate to the sex.

'There's somone across the street' ' Who is it?'
'There's a friend of John's across the street' 'Who is she?'

Answer 6

HOLA bueno,, yo tmb hablo español pq soy d argentina, y me obligan a estudiar ingles en el cole ¬¬

en fin, se dice "who is she/he"

Answer 7

"Who is she?" is gramatically correct. "Who's that?" or "Who is that?" would be commonly used, but gramatically incorrect.

You would ask "Who is it?" when you can't see the person.
for example: if someone is knocking on your door, you might ask "Who is it?" before opening the door or if someone is talking on the phone and you come into the room and want to know who they are talking to, you would ask "Who is it?"

Answer 8

you ask according to that person's sex. So if it was a girl is would be 'Who is She'

A boy = 'Who is He'

Answer 9

I would say "who is she?". You could also say "who is that?" which is better English than "who is it". Good luck with your lessons!

Answer 10

'Who is she?' I'd say, or 'Who is that?' if you want to be more general. I don't think you'd say 'Who is it?', but it wouldn't sound completely wrong.
=] besos!!