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Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Mei Jen in China about the usage of two words that sound the same.

Question

Dear Teacher,

I have some question(s) about the words whose and who's. I sometimes have confusion when I hear. I am not always sure what word I am hearing. Can you please share with me your advice?

Answer

Thank you for writing to us Mei Jen. I'm happy to answer this question.

The easiest way to know which word you are hearing is to listen for the words that follow it.

Who's

We contract, or join together, the two words who is to make the contraction¹ "who's." Often, the next word you hear after "who's" is a verb, as in these examples:

Who's going to help us?

Who's making all that noise?

Who's using this computer?

Sometimes, you will hear a prepositional phrase or a noun phrase after the contraction "who's."

Who's in the office today?

Who's the director of that film?

Last, we can contract the word "who" with the verb "has." So, the sentence "Who has already seen this film?" sounds like this:

Who's already seen this film?

Whose

Now, let's look at the possessive "whose," spelled w-h-o-s-e.

We use it to ask about who owns or has something. So, you should listen for a noun after the pronoun "whose," or you can listen for the adjectives "this," "that," "these," or "those."

For example, if we see a book on a desk and we do not know who owns it, we can ask either of the following questions:

Whose book is this?

Whose book is that?

You can hear the noun "book," and you can also hear the adjectives "this" and "that" at the end of the question.

We use the word "this" if we are close to the book. If we are farther away from the book, we use the word "that."

We use the adjectives "these" and "those" for plural² things.

Whose shoes are these?

Whose bags are those?

We can also place the contraction "who's" and the possessive "whose" at the beginning of a noun clause. The noun clause begins after the main verb of the sentence, as in these examples:

I want to know who's going to drive the bus.

I want to know whose idea this was.

You can learn more about the possessive "whose," including its use in relative clauses, in this Everyday Grammar on The Mysterious Word 'Whose'.

We hope today's lesson is helpful, Mei Jen.