Whose | Who's
The possessive form of English presents many writers with a problem, and everyone has at some point run around in a circle of illogic - after all, some might think if it is 'Mary's car', then why not 'who's car is that?' . STOP! Let's see what a grammarian would say about these two homonyms.
- Who's is a contraction of the two words 'who' and 'is'. The apostrophe replaces the missing letter(s), allowing readers to register the presence of a contraction.
- Whose is a possessive prounoun and the possessive form of 'who'.
The easiest way to get it right with these two is to consider how a sentence would look if you subtitute who's/whose for 'who is'. For example,
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I want to know who is at the door.
- CORRECT: I want to know who's at the door.
- INCORRECT: I want to know whose at the door.
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I met a man who is wife is a succesful novelist.
- CORRECT: I met a man whose wife is a successful novelist.
- INCORRECT: I met a man who's wife is a successful novelist
As you doubtless noticed, this simple trick will immediately flag your error and save any further confusion as to which word to use. Using this rule is simple, and will give you a boost of confidence when it comes to your writing.