By request: Who’s verses Whose

It never occurred to me to do an article on Who’s verses whose, because I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with it. I can see how this could be confusing, however.

I will try to make this as simple as possible.

“Who’s” is kind of like “it’s”. It is a contraction of two words.

Who is going to the store?

Who’s going to the store?

Whose is the possessive form of “Who”.

Who does this book belong to?

Whose book is this?

I believe the problem that may cause confusion is that sneaky little apostrophe. In most cases apostrophe with an “S” denotes a possessive. That is not true for “who”, or for “it”.

It’s just another one of those wonderful little rules that make the English language so much fun!

Hope this helps!

Note 332 – The posessive pronoun “theirs” has no apostrophe (mywritingnotebook.com)
The Sneaky and Dangerous Wiles of the Dreaded Apostrophe (jimmyscoundrel.wordpress.com)
Overcoming apostrophe catastrophes (wordsmithsuk.wordpress.com)
Creative Lesson Ideas: Apostrophe Cartoons (enoughofthecattalk.com)
Justify your apostrophes (nitpickersnook.com)
it’s or its? (blackfirsmrkaler.wordpress.com)
Grammatical Insanity (anomalousthoughts.wordpress.com)

11 responses to “By request: Who’s verses Whose”

emaginette | April 14, 2012 at 11:55 pm |

Thanks Jen, another gem. 🙂
jmmcdowell | April 14, 2012 at 3:45 pm |

I really like the way you present simple, clear examples for these lessons!
- Jennifer M Eaton | April 14, 2012 at 3:48 pm |
  
  Thanks! I know there are web sites out there where the explainations confuse you more than the question did. Glad to help!
Ann Marquez | April 14, 2012 at 1:21 pm |

This is the kind of stuff that wakes me up at night. (My internal editor only works the graveyard shift 😉 ) I’ll wake up thinking “… OMG! … I wrote ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ in yesterday’s post!” 😀
- Jennifer M Eaton | April 14, 2012 at 3:46 pm |
  
  Ha! I hope you don’t run to your cmoputer to check
Donna B. McNicol [@donnabmcnicol] | April 14, 2012 at 12:47 pm |

Thanks so much, I knew what to do once I really thought about it. Just easy to forget. LOL!
- Jennifer M Eaton | April 14, 2012 at 3:48 pm |
  
  Good luck, Donna!
tmso | April 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm |

You know, I probably do it and don’t even realize it. Thanks for alerting me to a potential pitfall.
journeyofjordannaeast | April 14, 2012 at 12:04 pm |

Thank you! It was totally the apostrophe that got me.
Love, the requester
- Jennifer M Eaton | April 14, 2012 at 3:47 pm |
  
  Glad I could help.
Sandra Madeira | April 14, 2012 at 2:59 am |

Great post Jennifer – thanks for including a link to my post
Sandra