Whose or who's: choose the right word

Use whose when you want to know who owns something. It functions as a possessive question word, so it connects directly to a noun. When someone leaves an item in a shared room or mentions an unfamiliar object, whose asks which person that item belongs to. You will hear this word in daily conversations at work, school, and home.

Who's is a contraction, which means it combines two separate words into one. Most of the time, who's stands for who is. An easy way to choose the correct spelling is to say who is out loud in your sentence. If the sentence sounds complete and makes sense, write who's with an apostrophe.

You can practise this again in Who or Which: Choose the Right Pronoun and In or within: Choose the right word.

Who's can also stand for who has before a past participle. In spoken English, speakers shorten who has to who's very frequently. When you hear who's followed by a verb form like seen, been, or brought, test whether who has fits the sentence. If who has works, use the apostrophe spelling.

Many English learners think that an apostrophe always shows possession. While names use apostrophes for possession, such as Sarah's desk or David's bag, possessive pronouns do not. Words like his, her, its, their, and whose never take an apostrophe. In who's, the apostrophe only replaces the missing letters in is or has.

You do not always need to put a noun directly after whose. If both people in the conversation already see or know the item, you can use whose by itself. The question remains possessive because it still asks who owns that item. The verb usually follows whose directly in this short pattern.

Whose does not appear only in questions. You can also use whose in relative clauses to connect a person or an organization to something they possess. In this position, whose introduces extra information about a noun. You can use it for people, groups, companies, and sometimes objects.

Because whose and who's sound identical, you cannot rely on pronunciation alone when you listen. Pay attention to the grammatical pattern right after the sound. If you hear a noun, the speaker is usually using whose. If you hear an adjective, an ing verb, or a preposition, the speaker is usually saying who's.

Before sending a business email or chat message, take five seconds to review every sentence containing this sound. Replace the word with who is or who has. If that full phrase works, keep who's with an apostrophe. If who is sounds strange and the sentence mentions an item belonging to someone, write whose.