Easily Confused English

This lesson's easily confused English words are "whose" and "who's."

Because they are homonyms, it's common for native speaker to mix them up and even Microsoft Word's grammar checker doesn't always catch the mistaken usage of them.

"Whose" describes possession of something, meaning "belonging to someone." You would use this form when asking if something (a noun) belongs to someone or when describing a person's possession of something.

For example:

Whose book is this?

The businessmen, whose computers were broken, could not do their work.

I'm not sure whose cat that is.

"Who's" is a contraction of "who is" or "who has."

For example:

Who's knocking at the door?

Sally, who's playing guitar in the show tonight, also sings.

Who's been eating all the cookies?

If you are still confused on when to use "whose" and "who's," you can double-check yourself by replacing "whose" or "who's" spot with "who is." If it does not make sense to say "who is" in the sentence than you should use 'whose.'

Now choose whether the following sentences are correct or incorrect:

Whose ice cream is this?

Whose been doing well in class?

I went to Bob's, who's home is very clean.

She is the one who's getting the promotion.

We weren't able to find out whose coat it was.

She doesn't know whose coming to the party.

He wants to know who's playing in the concert tonight.

I just can't decide who's advice to ask.