Who is/are at the door?

English as a Second Language
1

Who is at the door?
Who are at the door?

Which is the correct sentence?

Thanks.

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2

This is correct.

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3

Question pronouns
( Interrogative pronouns )

Who
What
When
Where
Which

When used as a question, these words are singular. The answer to the question can be singular or plural.

Who is at the door?
John is at the door.
Our neighbors are at the door.

In the original question, “Who is at the door?”, there is no antecedent to the pronoun “who”.

When not used as a question ( usually in the middle of a sentence ), the subject determines if it’s singular or plural.

John, who is at the door, is my friend.
( “John” is the antecedent )

John and Nancy, who are at the door, are my friends.
( “John and Nancy” is the antecedent )

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4

Though we usually say, ‘Who is at the door?’ to mean one or more callers, I don’t see any grammatical restriction to saying, ‘Who are at the door?’

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I haven’t heard “Who are…” used unless there is a clear indication that you mean multiple people.
“Who are the people at the door?”

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