Which to use
“whos” is a noun and “whose” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,029
- “whos” frequency rank
- #919
- “whose” frequency rank
- 27948
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whos | whose |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of who; often used along with whats, whys, hows, etc. | Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's. |
Same sound, different letters: whos vs whose
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Homophone desk: whos vs whose
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: whos and whose carry the same recorded pronunciation, /huːz/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other adeterminer, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “whos” sits inside “whose”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whos is recorded at frequency rank #27,029, classified as anoun, pronounced /huːz/. whose is at rank #919, tagged as adet, pronounced /huːz/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 27948, this pair ranks #374,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of whos vs whose
Shared letters: hosw. Private to "whos": -. Private to "whose": e.
"whos" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "whose" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "whos" and "whose" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "whos" or "whose" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "whos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whos" and "whose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whorl vs whos". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #374,886 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.