How can i use whose

This short video breaks a common myth. It explains where and how, the term, "whose", can be used for things and objects on GMAT sentence correction. Can "Whose" be Used for Things or Objects There is a persistent grammatical myth that the word "whose" can only be used to refer to people and not inanimate objects. However, this common assumption is incorrect, and buying into it can trip you up in your GMAT sentence correction.

In this short article, we will take a look at the usage of the word "whose" to understand where and how the word "whose" can be used to refer to things and objects. To begin with, you must understand that when it is used as an interrogative pronoun, the word "whose" can indeed be followed by a person as well as a thing but it must refer to a person.

Such sentences usually start with a phrase such as: "I am not sure" or "He doesn't know" or "We don't care. Adjective clauses are used to describe a noun in the main sentence. In the example above, the adjective clause tells us about "the man. The form "whom" is becoming less and less common in English. Many native English speakers think "whom" sounds outdated or strange. This trend is particularly common in the United States.

Especially when combined with prepositions, most people prefer to use "who" as the object pronoun. To most native English speakers, the examples below sound quite natural. Who, Whom, Whose f t p. Subjects, Objects and Possessive Forms To understand how to use "who," "whom," and "whose," you first have to understand the difference between subjects, objects, and possessive forms.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 6 months ago. Active 5 years, 10 months ago. Viewed k times. We lit a fire whose fuel was old timber wood. Improve this question. Related: 'Which', 'whose' or something else? Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Consider the following quotes from Shakespeare selected from many more quotes where whose refers to an inanimate object and more recent authors: Hamlet I.

Timon of Athens IV. Also F. Not to mention Pat Conroy: South of Broad In particular, one of whose 's uses is as an interrogative pronoun, as in: Whose shoes are these? Whose are these shoes? You have to say something like Which tree's leaves are these? But when it is a relative pronoun that immediately follows its antecedant, whose can be used for inanimate objects: The tree whose leaves look like hands Improve this answer.

Peter Shor Peter Shor A random sample of uses of whose from COCA included cases where it referred to a gene ; a crime ; a compact ; a concept ; a power company ; a now-defunct Internet company ; an exclusive resort hotel ; Prague ; one cave ; Pakistan ; entrances ; parotid masses ; light-water reactors ; f-shaped holes ; high-speed electrons ; a model of change ; a major city, Chunchikmil ; aggressive life-threatening cancers ; and the Russian Avant-Garde Foundation.

As one of those out-of-control grammarians, I like to make a distinction between "who" and "that" in sentences like "This is the knife that was used to kill" and "This is the person who is accused. Writing handbooks will tell you that the relative pronoun that is used for animals, things, and sometimes collective or anonymous people "the book that won," "infants that walk" ; which is used for animals and things "the river which flows south" ; and who is used for people and for animals, especially those treated like humans "the dog, who goes everywhere with its owner".

In addition, whose is the possessive form of who "she asked whose car it was". According to the rules, whose then only applies to people and animals, so what is the equivalent possessive for inanimate objects? Truth be told, English doesn't have one, and writers from the medieval times onward have resorted to borrowing whose in such cases. The list of authors who have used whose for inanimate objects over the centuries includes such last-name notables as Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, and Fitzgerald.

The mannequin, whose judgmental pose seems to imply disapproval, doesn't really care which word you use. On reaching the house, they were shown through the hall into the saloon, whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for summer.

I walked out the back way Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby , It wasn't until the 18th-century that the sticklers of grammar took notice of this centuries-long peccadillo , emphatically declaring whose to be the possessive only of the relative pronoun who while whispering their acknowledgment that English lacks an equivalent possessive for which and that. Their recommendation has been to use the construction of which for inanimate objects.

This might work in some cases, but for the most part, it ends up sounding clumsy or stilted.