Grammar Guide #11: Whose and Who’s

The English language can be quite peculiar at times, especially with so many words sounding alike but having different meanings. Consider this sentence: I wonder whose dog is the one who’s constantly leaving little presents on my lawn. When reading it, you can easily see the difference between whose and who’s but it’s not so obvious just hearing it. To help you know which one to use when, I’ve included some definitions and examples of whose and who’s below.

whose — The possessive form of who.

Examples of whose:

I wonder whose idea it was to put big bowls of candy on the conference table.

Whose CMS is likely to gain the biggest market share?

Jim is the one whose crazy ideas might just make him rich some day.

who’s— Is a contraction of who is or who has.

Examples of who’s as the contraction of who is:

Who’s going to handle the 33,000 pages of content migration?

Tony is the one who’s going to lead the meeting.

Examples of who’s as the contraction of who has:

Who’s eaten all of the candy in the conference room?

Jeremy is the one who’s done the most work on the website.