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Which question should be asked about one pair of trousers as a plurale tantum noun denoting the single object (with two trouser legs although)?

What's this? (They're trousers.)

or

What are these? (They're trousers.)

I sometimes give English lessons and try to find a better approach to explaining the rules. Imagine a situation when a child is given a picture of trousers. The child sees one thing consisting of two parts. And I know that "trousers" is a plural noun. Which question am I supposed to ask?

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    I've taken the liberty of adding your comment to the question so as to make it clearer.
    – CowperKettle
    Feb 23, 2017 at 19:32

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What is this?
This is a pair of trousers.

The answer "they are trousers" would be given in reply to "what are they?", but a person is unlikely to asks this in regard to a pair of trousers, because they are perceived as a single object.

Thus if you ask someone "what are they?" and point to a single pair of trousers, I don't think he/she will answer "they are trousers". A single pair of trousers is unlikely to be referred to as "they".

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    Whose are these (trousers)? is indeed what is said. And the answer could be, "I don't know. They aren't mine. We could also ask What are these? pointing to a particular pair of trousers, perhaps ones with a stripe down the side. What are these? Are you in a marching band?
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Feb 23, 2017 at 17:28
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    My comments show various uses of the plural with trousers. A native speaker would not point at pair of trousers, knowing them to be trousers, and ask "What is this?" unless the question meant "What are these trousers doing here?" The idiomatic question about a pair of trousers is "What are they?" or "What are these?" and the idiomatic answer would be "They are..." For example, They|those are the trousers I wear in the marching band.
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Feb 23, 2017 at 17:37
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    @TRomano - in a classroom situation, when you are teaching pupils to ask questions, you would tell them to use "what is this?" in relation to trousers. My guess is that Yulia is a teacher. Maybe I'm wrong. Okay, I'm too busy so maybe I'm wrong to answer questions when I don't have time to investigate the issue.
    – CowperKettle
    Feb 23, 2017 at 17:51
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    @Yulia: A native English-speaking teacher of preschoolers, say, or younger, would ask the class, when pointing at a picture of trousers, "What are these?" The teacher would change the pronoun to the plural, perhaps not even being consciously aware of it.
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Feb 23, 2017 at 19:24
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    @Yulia: If you read my comments and answers carefully, you will see that I include the proviso "which are known to be trousers". In other words, the questioner knows they're trousers but wants to know something about them. If the questioner has no idea that the clump of fabric is a pair of trousers, and simply wants to be told what the clump of fabric is, then in English one can also ask "What's this?" and the answer is likely to be That is a pair of trousers. But that latter scenario has nothing to do with plurale tantum nouns, for the questioner doesn't know what the thing is.
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Feb 23, 2017 at 20:51
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The word trousers takes the plural verb and is referred to with plural pronouns.

I wear these trousers to church on Sunday.

My trousers are torn.

My trousers are made of khaki.

The trousers of a dress suit are often made of lightweight wool.

What are they, the ones with a stripe down the side?
--They are the trousers I wear in the marching band.

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You can ask 'What is this/that?' in case you just see something packed and can't guess what it is exactly besides being an item of clothing.

If you see that it is definitely a pair of trousers or simply trousers, there's no need asking what this is or they are. But in case you want, for example, to find out who the trousers belong to, the question should be:

Whose (trousers) are they?

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    My guess was that Yulia is a teacher of English who looks for a proper phrase her pupil may use to ask what this or that item is called.
    – CowperKettle
    Feb 23, 2017 at 8:31
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    We wouldn't ask "Whose is this?" when referring to a pair of trousers which we know to be a pair of trousers. We ask Whose are these?
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Feb 23, 2017 at 17:52
  • @TRomano - Taken note of! I've read your comments on CowperKettle's answer. We live to learn. Thanks.
    – Victor B.
    Feb 23, 2017 at 17:57
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    CowperKettle is partly right, I am not a teacher of English, but I sometimes give English lessons and try to find a better approach to explaining the rules. Imagine a situation when a child is given a picture of trousers. The child sees one thing consisting of two parts. And I know that "trousers" is a plural noun. Which question am I supposed to ask?
    – Yulia
    Feb 23, 2017 at 19:01

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