Tiny Dancer Em
“Whose” can be a question word and a relative pronoun. (A relative pronoun connects two sentences.)
It means: belonging to someone.
If you ask: “Whose bag is this?”, you want to know whom this bag belongs to. Is it Sandra’s bag or Wilbert’s bag or somebody else’s?
Another example: “Whose birthday is it today?” With this question you’re asking for the person who has their birthday today.
Let’s do a little exercise with this and then we’ll do the relative pronoun thing.
Exercise 1
Make questions with “whose.” You can do the quiz online here.
Example:
Answer: This is Juan’s pen.
My question: Whose pen is this?
1 Answer: This is Frannie and Sergio’s car.
My question: Whose _____________________?
2 Answer: Those are my socks.
My question: Whose _____________________?
3 Answer: This is Elisha’s money.
My question: Whose _____________________?
4 Answer: This was our idea.
My question: Whose _____________________?
5 Answer: That’s Faye’s book lying there on the table.
My question: Whose _____________________?
6 Answer: Annabelle’s name starts with A.
My question: Whose _____________________?
“Whose” as a Relative Pronoun
“Whose” is used to connect two sentences.
Suppose I have the following two sentences:
1 I listened to my friend. 2 His voice got hoarse from telling me such a long story.
You can combine these sentences into one sentence by using “whose:”
I listened to my friend whose voice got hoarse from telling me such a long story.
“Whose voice” refers to “my friend.” It’s his voice that is getting hoarse.
Another example.
Remy is the player whose talents are going to make a big difference to our team.
“Whose” connects two sentences:
- Remy is the player.
- His talents are going to make a big difference to our team.
So “whose talents” refers to Remy’s talents.
Last example:
I don’t know whose shoes these are.
This example is slightly different, because “whose” connects a sentence and a question:
- I don’t know.
- Whose shoes are these?
Exercise 2
Use “whose” to combine the two sentences into one sentence.
Example:
A 1 This is the castle.
2 Its dead owners have returned as ghosts.
New sentence: This is the castle whose dead owners have returned as ghosts.
You can do this exercise online here.
B 1 These are our new neighbours.
2 Their daughter is in school with ours.
New sentence: ______________________________________________
C 1 Is this the book?
2 Its cover has been designed by a famous artist.
New question: ______________________________________________?
D 1 Here is the couple.
2 Their passports need to be renewed.
New sentence: ______________________________________________
E 1 There is Charlie.
2 His dog is gnawing on the table leg.
New sentence: ______________________________________________
F 1 Is she the actress?
2 Her photo was all over the papers last weekend.
New question: ______________________________________________?
G 1 You need to throw away the foods.
2 Their expiration date has passed.
New sentence: ______________________________________________
If you like these exercises, you can do hundreds more on englishwithasmile.net and order extra exercises too.
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