Whose in relative clauses: belongings, family and connections

The idea

Put whose + noun after the person or thing being described. The phrase can be the relative clause's subject or object. When it is the subject, match the verb to that noun: whose rooms face, but whose room faces.

Examples

• The woman whose bicycle was stolen called the police.
• I work with a designer whose drawings are easy to follow.
• We chose a hotel whose rooms face the garden.
• The volunteers whose names are on this list can collect badges.
• Do you know the boy whose father runs the bakery?
• The book whose cover you repaired is on my desk.

Watch out

Whose has no apostrophe; who's means who is or who has. Do not add the or her between whose and its noun. Whose can refer to things too, especially in more formal writing, and cannot simply be omitted.

Try it yourself

1. Choose the correct option. The woman ___ bicycle was stolen called the police. (whose / who's)

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   whose

   Whose bicycle expresses the link between woman and bicycle. Who's bicycle would expand to who is/has bicycle and does not fit.

2. Choose the correct option. We chose a hotel whose rooms ___ the garden. (face / faces)

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   face

   The subject of face is plural rooms, not singular hotel. The plural verb therefore has no third-person singular s.

3. Choose the correct option. The book ___ you repaired is on my desk. (whose cover / whose the cover)

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   whose cover

   Whose directly determines cover, so no extra the is used. Here you is the subject and whose cover is the object of repaired.

Use it today

Describe a person through a family connection and an object through one of its parts. Use whose in both, then mark the subject and verb inside each relative clause.