Who's versus Whose

The easiest way to remember which one to use, is to take the one with the apostrophe and extend it out so it's not contracted, and see if it makes sense.

Who's = who is

So if your sentence reads: "[Who's / Whose] toast burned in the microwave?", we see that "whose" is the one we have to use. Why? Because "Who is toast burned in the microwave?" doesn't make sense.

"[Who's / Whose] that handsome firefighter?" would have to be "Who is that handsome firefighter?" because that's the only one of the two that makes sense.

(c)2014 Suzann Kale

Tags: syntax, grammar, who's versus whose, apostrophe