Who's or whose?
who's is a contraction meaning “Who is”; whose is a determiner meaning “Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's”. Use who's as a contraction and whose as a determiner. They sound the same (/huːz/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) whose is about 1.7 times as common as who's.
What is the difference between who's and whose?
| who's | whose | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | contraction | determiner, pronoun |
| Meaning | Who is Who has | Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's Of whom, belonging to whom That or those of whom or belonging to whom |
| Example | Who’s that in my bed? | Whose (wallet) is this? |
| Pronunciation | /huːz/ /ʍuːz/ | /huːz/ |
| In writing | 71 times per million words | 117 times per million words |
Sources: who's and whose in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of who's and whose
who's
- 1
Who is
Who’s that in my bed?
- 2
Who has
Who’s been sleeping in my bed?
- 3
colloquialWho (whom) does
whose
- 1
Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's
Whose (wallet) is this?
- 2
That or those of whom or belonging to whom
Several people have lost their suitcases. Whose have you found?
- 3
Honorific alternative letter-case form of whose, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context
- 4
Of whom, belonging to whom
This is the man whose dog caused the accident
- 5
That or those of whom or belonging to whom
This car is blocking the way, but Mr Smith, whose it is, will be here shortly
- 6
Of which, belonging to which
We saw several houses whose roofs were falling off
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, who's or whose?
who's appears 71 times per million words; whose 117 times per million words.
who's 71 times per million wordswhose 117 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search who's vs whose?
“who's vs whose” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 960 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“whose vs who's”, “who's or whose”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.