Which questions is correct:
"Where am I and my sister?"
or
"Where are I and my sister?"
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4I'd use "Where are my sister and I?" Arguing about how many grammarians find either of the others grammatically acceptable ignores the virtual need for idiomaticity.– Edwin AshworthJan 17, 2016 at 7:45
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Possible duplicate of "My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner"– FumbleFingersJan 17, 2016 at 13:28
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1@Edwin: My need for idiomaticity requires me to forget about I and ask Where are me and my sister?– FumbleFingersJan 17, 2016 at 13:30
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3 Answers
Think about it:
My sister and I are going to the store.
My sister and I are now at the store.
My sister and I are where?
Where are my sister and I?
Don't semantically muddle the issue by relocating "I" before "sister" in order to lean on the seeming rightness of "I am." However you decide to say it, though, "my sister and I" or the more egomaniacal "I and my sister," it doesn't change the fact that it calls for the first-person plural conjugation of the verb "to be," also known as the "we" conjugation.
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@Mari-Lou A : Yes, absolutely. That is what any natural speaker would say. Jan 17, 2016 at 8:06
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1@Peter : That doesn't change the fact. The same conjugation applies whether you say "we" or "my sister and I." They are both second-person plural. The answer remains "are." Jan 17, 2016 at 8:32
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2@Peter : Make no mistake, the subject of the sentence is "my sister and I," not "where." This is an example of inversion. We invert the subject and the verb when forming questions. If we were not to use inversion, it would be "Where my sister and I are?" But we do use inversion, so we say, "Where are my sister and I?" Jan 17, 2016 at 12:19
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2'... it doesn't change the fact that it calls for the first-person plural conjugation of the verb "to be,"...' needs supporting evidence. I'd say 'Where are I and my sister?' is at best close to unacceptable, which trumps the 'this needs plural agreement' argument. // There are examples showing that 'the obvious answer' is not always correct, such as 'It's us' and 'More than one person was unhappy'. 'Think about it' is not safe here. Jan 18, 2016 at 0:12
my sister and I are where?
I and my sister are where?
would be natural and gramatic ways of asking the question, which brings you to rearranging into another semantically correct form of the question:
where are my sister and I?
I would avoid the issue with:
Where are we, my sister and I?
