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Is it possible to use "... it is, then" with plural nouns?

Example: "Apples or pears?"
"Apples."
"Apples it is, then."

Heartspring
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gentledisplayofweakness
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    Perfectly ordinary. The subject is it, the verb agrees with it, and all's well with the world. – John Lawler Oct 02 '23 at 15:12
  • Probably close enough to be a duplicate: Here's + plurality question ("Here's Pete and Jill" / "There's a pub, a railway station and a shop in my village" / "It's us"). – Edwin Ashworth Oct 02 '23 at 16:09
  • Note that after "Are those apples or pears?" ..."Good question. They're Pyrus pyrifolia!" it's quite acceptable to answer "Ah. Pears they are, then." Here, 'they' is clearly referential. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 02 '23 at 16:23
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    @EdwinAshworth That is not the same question. Yes, and there is still a choice. – Lambie Oct 02 '23 at 17:17
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    @Edwin: No, it's not close at all. Your examples can be restated in the plural without changing the meaning: "Here are Pete and Jill" etc. But the OP's example can't: "Apples they are, then" means something quite different. – TonyK Oct 02 '23 at 23:28
  • @TonyK It's the same plural-insensitive use of 'it' ('it's us' is mentioned in the other thread, and can't be switched), but overall, using a singular construction where a plural one would be expected with a not-really-referential subject stand-in. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 04 '23 at 16:46

2 Answers2

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Context: Spoken language used in response to being told some other choice is not available or not germane to a situation.

Person 1: "I would really like to buy pears for pie as well."
Person 2 "Well, sir, we have no more pears and won't for another ten days."
Person 1: "Apples, it is then".

This is for speech. "it" here is a dummy pronoun.

A dummy pronoun is a deictic pronoun that fulfills a syntactical requirement without providing a contextually explicit meaning of its referent.

dummy pronoun

Lambie
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  • Thank you! Can it only be used in this context? Would the phrase be out of place in the following exchange? "They will only do it if we bring them some apples." - "Apples it is then. Let's go find some." Apologies if comments are not the right place to ask. – gentledisplayofweakness Oct 02 '23 at 15:27
  • @gentledisplayofweakness No, that's fine too. "apples it is then" would in that case refer to their activity rather than the choice of object. . Let's go and find some apples instead of going into a coffee shop for a coffee. But notice: there is still a choice even if implicit. – Lambie Oct 02 '23 at 15:29
  • Honestly, I'd struggle to find an idiomatic example for this that wasn't a proper or plural noun. – GeoffAtkins Oct 02 '23 at 19:06
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    @GeoffAtkins It could be any manner of uncountable noun: Coffee, it is then. [as opposed to, say, tea] – Lambie Oct 02 '23 at 19:31
  • @Lambie OK, those too. – GeoffAtkins Oct 02 '23 at 19:43
  • @GeoffAtkins I feel ya. That happens to me a lot when trying to generate examples. Sometimes our brains are too slow. – Lambie Oct 02 '23 at 19:45
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    @GeoffAtkins "An apple it is, then"? – Azor Ahai -him- Oct 03 '23 at 00:18
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    I don't think the comma would be used where you put it there. I would write it as "Apples it is, then." – Hearth Oct 03 '23 at 00:53
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    Someone tried to edit this and take out well, sir as that person edited "for inclusive language". Unbelievable. – Lambie Oct 03 '23 at 15:04
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    @lambie unfortunately it's very believable. – barbecue Oct 03 '23 at 17:30
6

Is it possible to use "... it is, then" with plural nouns?

The example you give is somewhat idiomatic English. The "it" pronoun refers not to the apples, but to the chosen option.

"[Is your choice] apples or pears?" (implicitly asking to choose exactly one of the options)

"[I choose] Apples [from the options presented]."

"Apples it is, then."

So the referent of "it" is "your single option, from what was options were available". Hence, regardless of whether it's one apple or many apples, the option chosen is a singular noun; and so, "it" is appropriate.

In the dialogue, the plurality of "apples" and "pears" never matters, because the pronoun doesn't refer to them.

bignose
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