In this installment of Word Knots we’ll look at two words that are often misused, despites having very different meanings.

Our source for this installment is The Dictionary of Disagreeable English by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Chicago: Writer’s Digest Books). This is a great book to browse: I highly recommend it.

From Fiske:

who’s

Solecistic for whose. 

As Fiske writes (excerpted):

Do not confuse who’s (that is, who is) with whose, the possessive form of who.

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Let’s look at what Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary says about whose (excerpted):

whose

adjective

: of or relating to whom or which especially as possessor or possessors

Note: Do not confuse whose with who’s, which is a contraction of “who is” (“the child who’s giggling”) or of “who has” (“the one who’s helped before”).

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Fiske and M-W basically issue the same warning about confusing who’s with whose. This is an error that really shouldn’t happen, but unfortunately it does.

Let’s look at each of these used correctly in similar sentences, so that we can see the difference:

The guy whose car has been parked outside all night is going to get a ticket.

The guy who’s been parking outside all night is going to get a ticket.

In the first example, we’re using the possessive form of who. In the second example, we’re just using the contraction who’s in place of who has.

Remember: word choice matters.

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