GCSE English

Whose and who's

?

The problem here is similar to that of it's and its, in that whose is possessive.

Who's is really who is, the apostrophe indicates that an i is missing:
e.g. "Who's that gorgeous girl over there?"

Whose means "belonging to the person":
e.g. "Dan, whose eyes were bloodshot, hadn't slept well."

Whose is a possessive pronoun.
e.g. whose cat, whose iPod, etc.

Who's is normally misused in questions such as:
"Who's bag is this?"

It should, of course, be "Whose bag is this?"


Advice and advise
Affect and effect
Bought and brought
Complement and compliment
Discreet and discrete
Hear and here
Its and it's
Lead and led
Less and fewer
Licence and license
Loose and lose
  Plane and plain
Poor, pore and pour
Practice and practise
Principal and principle
Sort and sought
Stationary and stationery - new!
There, their and they're
Threw, through and thorough
To and too
Warn and Worn
Whose and who's
Your and you're

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