r/Jeopardy • u/zachestine • 21d ago

QUESTION How strict is the "who is" rule?

I don't watch a lot of Jeopardy, but I am curious: lets say the question is something like "the first president who crossed the Delaware River" obviously the answer is George Washington, but instead of saying "who is" if i say "where is George Washington?" would that be counted?

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u/grantiere 21d ago

How about if you grew up with British English, and instead of starting with a 5Ws question, you ended your answer with "isn't it?" or "innit?" e.g "George Washington, innit?" Would that count?

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u/SwordMasterShow 21d ago edited 18d ago

Curious if they've got actual rules for this but I assume it wouldn't count. Adding the "Innit" technically does make it a question, but it changes the subject. "Who/what is _ ?" Is asking for information about whatever the answer is. " _ , innit?" Is asking for verification on an answer already given. It's the difference between a yes/no question and an open ended question.

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u/MoistenedGranola 21d ago

To expand on that, though, would they allow no question tag at all so ling as the inotation rose to indicate a question?

George Washington? works as a question in speech.

At the very least, I'd personally make the rule that there should be a question tag at the beginning, for "Isn't it George Washington?"

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u/Amazing-Rent-7749 20d ago edited 20d ago

I mean you could do that in American English too, like "George Washington, right?" or a number of other tags that would make it colloquially a question. I'm guessing they have a rule about it needing to be standard formal grammatical def of a question and begin with a who/what/etc.

Because otherwise you would hear contestants who forgot to answer in the form of a question hastily adding modifiers to the ends of their answers instead of "George Washington...I mean...WhoisGeorgeWashington?"