People are often confused with the terms who’s and whose and often misuse them when writing. This may be due to their similar sounds despite their distinct uses and meanings. This post will help you distinguish between the two.
The word who’s is actually the contraction of the phrase who is.
“Who’s Accountable for the California Housing Crisis”
NBC Bay Area“Bad lines men say to a female assistant (who’s actually a robot)”
CNET“Who’s the toughest bird? Continentwide ranking reveals a surprise”
Science Magazine
It may also stand for the phrase who has.
“Wednesday’s best TV: Who’s Won the White House, Black is the New Black”
The Guardian“Kings to debut LaDue, who’s been in the news lately””
NBC Sports“Meet the Defiant Scottish Farmer Who’s Been Feuding with Trump for a Decade”
Vanity Fair
Meanwhile, whose is the possessive form of the pronoun who meaning “belonging to or associated with which person.”
“Whose State Department will this be, Rex Tillerson’s or Donald Trump’s?”
Dallas News“Silencing safety at the Super Bowl, but for whose safety?: Arthur”
Toronto Star“Feehery: Whose American dream is it?”
The Hill
When used as the start of a clause, whose serves as a relative pronoun “used to indicate that the following noun belongs to or is associated with the person or thing mentioned in the previous clause.”
“Heartbreaking story of vet whose suicide prompted questions over animal welfare”
Telegraph.co.uk“Father whose daughter’s death prompted petition for more meningitis vaccines accuses Government of complacency”
The Telegraph“Donald Trump sued by doctor whose visa was revoked ‘for having Muslim prayer app on phone'”
The Independent
One simple technique you can use to test if you should use whose or who’s in a sentence is to try to substitute the term with who has or who is.
