What does whose mean?
Word: Whose
Part of Speech: Pronoun
Meaning: Whose means a question word that asks who something belongs to, as in Whose bag is this? It also links to a person or thing that owns something: the boy whose kite flew away.
Sounds like: who's (short for who is or who has)
How do you spell whose?
Syllables: whose
Tricky part: Whose sounds just like who's, the short form of who is or who has. Whose is the owning word and never takes an apostrophe.
Watch out for: whos, whoes, whoose
Memory tip: Whose is about owning, and the owning words his, hers and its carry no apostrophe either.
Whose in a sentence
Example 1: Whose turn is it to feed the fish?
Example 2: That's the boy whose kite got stuck in the neem tree.
Example 3: Mum asked whose muddy shoes were on the sofa.
Fun Fact
Whose goes back more than a thousand years to Old English hwaes, the form of who that meant 'of whom'.
Practise the CREST Way
Sound Check
Which word does not rhyme with whose?
a) snooze
b) shoes
c) those
d) blues
Show answer
c) those. Those has a long o, while shoes, blues and snooze end in the 'ooz' heard in whose.
Spellacadabra
Choose the correct option to make a meaningful word:
who_e
a) z
b) x
c) c
d) s
Show answer
d) s. The buzzing z sound near the end is written with an s, as in rose and nose.
Spell Spies
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) wich
b) whole
c) whose
d) where
Show answer
a) wich. Which has an h straight after the w, like whose and where.
Jumble Tumble
Choose the correct sequence of the jumbled letters to form a meaningful word:
sehwo 12345
a) 43521
b) 34512
c) 43512
d) 45312
Show answer
c) 43512. Read 4, 3, 5, 1, 2 and the letters make the question word about owning.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In 'the girl whose cat is lost', what does whose tell us?
a) the girl gave the cat away
b) the cat has found the girl
c) the cat is the girl's
d) the girl herself is lost
Show answer
c) the cat is the girl's
2. 'Whose pencil is this?' Which reply fits this question?
a) It is Leah's pencil.
b) It came on Monday.
c) It is very sharp.
d) It is on the desk.
Show answer
a) It is Leah's pencil.
