Is it 'whose turn is it' or 'who's turn is it'?

It is 'Whose turn is it?' You are asking about possession: the turn belongs to someone. 'Who's turn' would expand to 'who is turn,' which makes no sense.

Can 'whose' be used for things, not just people?

Yes. Whose is the standard possessive for things as well as people: 'a city whose population is growing,' 'a book whose cover is torn.' Some writers feel it sounds odd for objects and use 'of which' instead, but whose for things has been used by respected writers for centuries and is fully correct.

Is it 'whose is this' or 'who's is this'?

It is 'Whose is this?' Here whose stands alone as a possessive pronoun meaning 'belonging to whom.' 'Who's is this?' would mean 'who is is this,' which is not grammatical.

What does 'who's who' mean?

'Who's who' means the important or well-known people in a group, as in 'The guest list was a who's who of Australian sport.' It comes from the title of reference books listing notable people. It uses who's because it is short for 'who is who.'

Is 'who's' ever used in formal writing?

Contractions like who's are generally avoided in very formal writing such as academic papers, legal documents and official reports, where 'who is' or 'who has' is written out. In most business emails, articles and everyday writing, who's is perfectly acceptable.

Who's vs Whose: Meaning and Easy Examples

Who's is a contraction of who is or who has. Whose is a possessive word meaning "belonging to whom" or "of which." If you can replace the word with who is or who has and the sentence still makes sense, write who's; if not, write whose.

They sound identical (HOOZ), so you can't tell them apart by ear. The confusion usually comes from the apostrophe. In English, an apostrophe often signals possession (Sam's car), so writers assume the possessive must be who's. But with pronouns, possession never takes an apostrophe. That single fact explains the whole pair.

Quick answer: Who's = who is or who has (Who's coming? Who's seen my keys?). Whose = belonging to whom (Whose bag is this?). Test: expand it. If who is/has works, use who's. Otherwise, use whose.

On this page

The Expansion Test
Why There's No Apostrophe in Whose
Who's: Two Meanings
Whose: Questions and Clauses
Work, Academic and News Examples
US vs UK vs Australia
Common mistakes
Memory Tricks
Who's vs Whose in Longer Sentences
Whose After Prepositions
Whose vs Of Which
Why Spell-Checkers Miss It
Related Forms: Whoever's and Whosever
Editing Exercise: A Club Newsletter
Common Phrases at a Glance
Quick Comparison
Practice quiz
The Habit to Build

The Expansion Test

This one test settles nearly every case. Read the sentence aloud with who is or who has in place of the word.

"Who's/Whose ready for lunch?" → Who is ready for lunch? ✅ → Who's
"Who's/Whose jacket is this?" → Who is jacket is this? ❌ → Whose
"Who's/Whose been using my mug?" → Who has been using my mug? ✅ → Who's
"The singer who's/whose album went platinum" → the singer who is album... ❌ → whose

If the expanded version is nonsense, the sentence needs the possessive.

Why There's No Apostrophe in Whose

Pronouns Don't Use Apostrophes for Possession

Nouns form possessives with an apostrophe: Emma's phone, the dog's bowl, the teachers' lounge. Personal pronouns have their own built-in possessive forms, and none of them uses an apostrophe:

Pronoun	Possessive	Contraction (sounds similar)
who	whose	who's (who is / who has)
it	its	it's (it is / it has)
you	your	you're (you are)
they	their	they're (they are)

Once you see the pattern, the apostrophe rule becomes consistent: in this group, the apostrophe always marks a missing letter, never ownership. Who's, it's, you're and they're are all contractions.

Parts of Speech

who's: a contraction of the pronoun who plus the verb is or has. It always contains a verb.
whose: a possessive determiner (before a noun: whose car) or a possessive pronoun (standing alone: Whose is this?). It is also used as a relative possessive in clauses (the man whose dog barked).

History

Whose comes from Old English hwæs, the genitive (possessive) of hwā, "who." It has been a possessive word since the earliest English. Who's is a much later contraction, the sort of spelling that appeared as writers began marking dropped letters with apostrophes in early modern English.

Who's: Two Meanings

Who Is

Who's at the door?
Who's in charge of the barbecue this year?
I wonder who's going to win the grand final.
Do you know who's presenting at the Brisbane conference?

Who Has

Who's got a spare charger?
Who's seen the new series yet?
The colleague who's been covering reception deserves a break.
Who's finished their report?

Note that who's for who has is most natural when has is an auxiliary verb (who's seen, who's been) or in the informal "who's got." In formal writing, "Who has a copy?" reads better than "Who's a copy?", which most people wouldn't say.

Whose: Questions and Clauses

In Questions

Whose car is parked across my driveway?
Whose idea was it to start at 6 a.m.?
This umbrella was left in the meeting room. Whose is it?
Whose turn is it to pick the film?

In Relative Clauses

Here whose links a noun to extra information about something that belongs to it.

The student whose essay won the prize is from Leeds.
We met a couple whose son plays for the Sydney Swans.
That's the restaurant whose owner used to work in New York.
Applicants whose forms are incomplete will be contacted.

Whose for Things

Detroit is a city whose fortunes have changed dramatically over the past century.
It was a proposal whose time had come.
The study examined rivers whose flow had been altered by dams.
They bought a house whose roof needed replacing.

Some style commentators once argued that whose should be kept for people and that of which should be used for things ("a house the roof of which needed replacing"). That alternative is grammatical but clunky. Modern dictionaries and usage guides accept whose for inanimate things without reservation.

Work, Academic and News Examples

"Could you check who's available to cover Friday's shift?" (work email)
"Please contact any client whose invoice is overdue." (work email)
"Who's responsible for approving travel requests?" (work chat)
"Participants whose scores fell below the threshold were excluded." (academic)
"The author, whose earlier novels were set in Melbourne, now turns to London." (review)
"Police are trying to identify the driver whose car was found abandoned in Dayton." (news)
"Voters will decide who's best placed to lead the state." (news)

US vs UK vs Australia

There is no regional difference for this pair. Who's and whose are spelled, pronounced and used identically in American, British and Australian English. The confusion is equally common in all three countries, and the fix is the same.

What varies is the context around the words. British and Australian speakers often say "Who's got a pen?" where many Americans might say "Who has a pen?" or "Who's got a pen?" (both are common in the US). Because "have got" is especially frequent in British and Australian English, you'll see the who has sense of who's a little more in those varieties, but the spelling rule doesn't change.

Formality levels are also similar. Style guides in all three countries tend to discourage contractions like who's in academic and legal writing, while accepting them in journalism, business email and general prose.

Common mistakes

❌ Who's phone keeps ringing? ✅ Whose phone keeps ringing?

❌ Whose coming to the meeting? ✅ Who's coming to the meeting?

❌ The artist who's work we saw in Hobart is exhibiting again. ✅ The artist whose work we saw in Hobart is exhibiting again.

❌ Whose been eating my biscuits? ✅ Who's been eating my biscuits?

❌ I don't know who's this is. ✅ I don't know whose this is.

❌ Who'se turn is it? ✅ Whose turn is it?

The last example isn't a real word; it shows up when writers aren't sure where the apostrophe goes and try to split the difference. Whose never has an apostrophe.

Memory Tricks

Apostrophe = missing letter. In who's, the apostrophe stands in for the i of is or the ha of has. If nothing is missing, there's no apostrophe, so it's whose.

Whose sits with his, hers, its and ours. None of those possessives has an apostrophe, and neither does whose. Think of them as a family.

Expand before you send. Read who's as "who is." If the sentence breaks, switch to whose.

Who's vs Whose in Longer Sentences

The test still works in complex sentences, but you need to test the right word.

"The volunteer who's organizing the fundraiser, whose idea it was, has already raised $5,000."

First word: "who is organizing" ✅ → who's
Second word: "who is idea it was" ❌ → whose

Another tricky pattern involves questions that end in a possessive:

"Whose are these?" (belonging to whom?) ✅
"Who's are these?" ❌ ("who is are these")

And a pattern with "who's" followed by a noun that seems possessive:

"Who's the owner of this dog?" (who is the owner) ✅
"Whose dog is this?" (belonging to whom) ✅

Both sentences ask essentially the same thing, but they're built differently, so each uses a different word.

Whose After Prepositions

Whose often follows a preposition in formal writing, and these structures are where the possessive is easiest to miss.

The colleague in whose office we met has since retired.
The scientist with whose help the vaccine was developed spoke at the ceremony in Canberra.
The donor, to whose generosity the hospital owes its new wing, attended the opening.
Families for whose children the program was designed have praised it.

In each case, whose is followed by a noun it owns (office, generosity, children). A contraction makes no sense after a preposition: "in who's office" would expand to "in who is office." If a preposition comes directly before the word, you can be almost certain it's whose.

Whose vs Of Which

You may hear that whose should only be used for people. Here is how the alternative compares:

"a car whose engine failed" (natural, standard)
"a car the engine of which failed" (correct but heavy)
"a car with an engine that failed" (a useful rewrite)

The of which version is grammatical, and it sometimes appears in legal or very formal prose. For most purposes, though, whose is clearer, shorter and fully accepted for things. If whose for an object sounds odd to you in a particular sentence, rewriting with with or that is usually smoother than switching to of which.

Why Spell-Checkers Miss It

Both who's and whose are real words, so a basic spell-checker sees nothing wrong with either. Grammar checkers do better with simple cases ("who's car"), but they often miss errors in longer sentences, especially when whose is separated from its noun by an adjective ("whose newly renovated kitchen") or when who's introduces a long clause. That's why the expansion test is still worth doing by hand on anything important.

A related trap appears in voice-to-text. Dictation software has to guess between the two from context, and it sometimes picks the wrong one. If you dictate emails or messages, proofread every who's and whose before sending.

The same split carries over to whoever, though you will meet it less often.

Whoever's is a contraction of whoever is or whoever has: "Whoever's last out, please lock up." "Whoever's finished can leave early."
Whosever is the traditional possessive of whoever, meaning "belonging to whichever person": "Whosever car this is, it needs to be moved." It is correct but rare, and many readers find it stiff.

In everyday English, whoever's is widely used for the possessive as well ("Whoever's car this is…"), and most dictionaries record that use. In formal writing, the cleanest option is often a rewrite: "The owner of this car needs to move it" avoids both forms.

Here is a short notice from a community sports club in Bristol. It contains three errors. Try to find them before reading the answers.

"Who's turn is it to run the canteen on Saturday? We need someone whose free from 8 a.m. Thanks to Priya, who's idea it was to add a coffee stall, and to everyone who's already signed up for the working bee."

Answers:

"Who's turn" → Whose turn. "Who is turn" makes no sense; the turn belongs to someone.
"someone whose free" → who's free. "Someone who is free" is the meaning.
"who's idea" → whose idea. The idea belongs to Priya.

The last who's ("who's already signed up") is correct: it expands to "who has already signed up." Notice how one short paragraph can contain both forms, used correctly and incorrectly. Expanding each one in turn is faster than trying to judge the whole sentence at once.

Common Phrases at a Glance

Phrase	Correct form	Why
who's who	who's	"who is who"
whose fault	whose	the fault belongs to someone
who's there?	who's	"who is there"
whose side are you on?	whose	the side belongs to someone
who's next?	who's	"who is next"
in whose name	whose	possessive after a preposition

Quick Comparison

	Who's	Whose
What it is	Contraction	Possessive
Stands for	who is / who has	of whom / of which
Contains a verb?	Yes	No
Apostrophe?	Yes	Never
Used for things?	—	Yes
Example	Who's ready?	Whose coat is this?

The same contraction-versus-possessive logic powers several other confusing pairs. Once you've got this one, see its vs it's, your vs you're and their, there or they're, which all follow the identical apostrophe rule. For the related subject-object choice, see who vs whom.

Practice quiz

Choose who's or whose.

______ taking minutes at today's meeting?
I found a wallet on the train. ______ could it be?
The farmer ______ cattle escaped has apologized to the neighbors.
______ been to the new library in Birmingham?
A company ______ profits have doubled is rarely short of investors.
Do you know ______ responsible for the parking permits?

Answers

Who's – "Who is taking minutes" makes sense.
Whose – Asking about ownership of the wallet.
whose – The cattle belong to the farmer.
Who's – "Who has been to the new library."
whose – Possessive for a thing (the company's profits).
who's – "Who is responsible."

The Habit to Build

Every time you type who's, silently read it as "who is" or "who has." If it fits, keep the apostrophe; if it doesn't, delete it and write whose. That five-second check, the same one that fixes it's and you're, is all it takes to make this mistake disappear from your writing.