Revised as of
8 Dec 2023
The words who’s and whose sound so similar, and they are from the same root, hwā, but that doesn’t make it the same. The primary confusion writers have with these two words is the contraction for who’s, a.k.a. “who is”.
It’s essential to pay attention to that apostrophe and the missing letter it represents. (You may want to explore the post, “Apostrophe“, for a more in-depth look at how this bit of punctuation affects contractions.)
Other “Who” Posts
To avoid confusions, there are other posts that explore the who versus . . . question, including:
- “Who ‘Dat?” mostly explores who versus that but does include a bit on whom and whose
- “Who versus Whom“
- “Whoever vs Whosoever vs Whomever vs Whosever“
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
If you found this post on “Who’s versus Whose” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Who’s (who is/ who has) |
Whose |
|---|---|
Who’s Who in the Zoo, 4 June 1937, is a poster about an illustrated natural history prepared by the WPA Federal Writers Project. It’s attributed to Sidney Jacobson and is under the Public Domain Mark 1.0 license, via Picryl. |
Whose Baby are You? is a theatrical poster of a Mark E Swann production and is under the Public Domain Mark 1.0 license courtesy of the Library of Congress, via Picryl. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Personal Pronoun in the Nominative (or Subjective) Case: | Possessive Adjective Possessive Pronoun |
| Contraction for who is or who has
Interrogative Pronoun: What or which person or people Relative Pronoun:
Restrictive Identifier: |
my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs
A possessive in that the noun that follows belongs to or is associated with a person or object mentioned Interrogative Possessive Determiner AND Pronoun: Belonging to or associated with which person Relative Possessive Determiner: Can replace of which, especially when the subject is not human |
| Examples: | |
| Interrogative Pronoun: Who’s out there? Who’s that idiot? Who’s done the reading? Relative Pronoun: There’s this guy at work, who’s one of my friends, well he’s never been on a train. She’s going out with a bloke who’s in the army. Restrictive Identifier: It’s specifically identifies the one with red hair as the one who did it. She’s the one who’s eating her vegetables. It’s the only girl who is eating vegetables. Who’s getting out of the red car? It’s not the person getting out of any other color car. |
Interrogative Possessive Determiner AND Pronoun: Whose keys are these? Whose kids are those? Whose round is it? A minivan was parked at the curb, and Juliet wondered whose it was. The company whose stock rose faster was able to expand more quickly. It was a book whose conclusion was unforgettable. Relative Possessive Determiner: John works with that other chap whose name I can’t remember. Whose little brother is he? |
| History of the Word: | |
| Before 900, Old English and Middle English hwā is cognate with the Old High German hwer, the Gothic hwas, and the Latin quis. | Old English hwæs, genitive of hwā meaning who and hwæt meaning what. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Who’s versus Whose
Apple Dictionary.com
Cambridge Dictionary: Relative Pronouns, whose
Pinterest Photo Credits
This photo, Dr. Who, by aussiegall from Sydney, Australia, was a result of playing with a Tardis money box that was sitting on her cupboard. “Thought it would a fun to take a picture of it and do a touch of photoshopping.” She has released it under a CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
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