Question

What of the following question tags is correct and Why ?

Somebody has knocked at the door , haven´t they ?
or
Somebody has knocked at the door , hasn´t he?

Answer 1

in modern english, the general subject is not he or she anymore, but they. so when you use somebody or everybody, you can refer to them as 'they'. thus the correct tag question is: somebody has knocked at the door, haven't they? there are some exceptions in tag questions where the auxiliary in the first clause doesn't match the one in the tag.

Answer 2

I agree with Sargento030, has should be paired with hasn't. Then as a general rule, he is used to refer to a person if the gender is not known.

Why don't you rewrite the sentence and turn it into:

There was a knock on the door, wasn't it?

It's simple and easy to understand. :D

 

 

Answer 3

-Con “somebody” “anybody”, “nobody” “someone” “anyone”, “no-one”“everbody” “anyone”, la question tag llevará el auxiliar en plural y el pronombre sujeto "they", aunque en la oración el verbo esté en singular.

- Nobody knows what happened, do they? Nadie sabe lo que pasó, ¿verdad?
- Everybody wanted to go to the concert, didn't they? Todo el mundo quería ir al concierto ¿verdad?

Answer 4

"Somebody has knocked at the door , hasn´t he?" Is correct. "Hasn't" match with "has".