Whose is used in questions about possession.
Possessives
In English, possessive words or phrases exist for nouns and most pronouns, as well as some noun phrases. These can play the roles of determiners (also called possessive adjectives when corresponding to a pronoun) or of nouns.
For historical reasons, this case is misleadingly called the possessive (case). It was called the genitive until the 18th century and in fact expresses much more than possession. Most disagreements about the use of possessive forms of nouns and of the apostrophe are due to the erroneous belief that a term should not use an apostrophe if it does not express possession.
In the words of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage:
The argument is a case of fooling oneself with one's own terminology. After the 18th-century grammarians began to refer to the genitive case as the possessive case, grammarians and other commentators got it into their heads that the only use of the case was to show possession. ...
This dictionary also cites a study in whose samples only 40% of the possessive forms were used to indicate actual possession.
Nouns, noun phrases, and some pronouns generally form a possessive with the suffix -'s (apostrophe plus s, but in some cases just by adding an apostrophe to an existing s). Personal pronouns, however, have irregular possessives, and most of them have different forms for possessive determiners and possessive pronouns, such as my and mine or your and yours.
Possessives are one of the means by which genitive constructions are formed in modern English, the other principal one being the use of the preposition of.
Questions
Like many other Western European languages, English historically allowed questions to be formed by inverting the positions of verb and subject. Modern English permits this only in the case of a small class of verbs ("special verbs"), consisting of auxiliaries as well as forms of the copula be. To form a question from a sentence which does not have such an auxiliary or copula present, the auxiliary verb do (does, did) needs to be inserted, along with inversion of the word order, to form a question. For example:
- She can dance. → Can she dance? (inversion of subject she and auxiliary can)
- I am sitting here. → Am I sitting here? (inversion of subject I and copula am)
- The milk goes in the fridge. → Does the milk go in the fridge? (no special verb present; do-support required)
The above concerns yes-no questions, but inversion also takes place in the same way after other questions, formed with interrogative words such as where, what, how, etc. An exception applies when the interrogative word is the subject or part of the subject, in which case there is no inversion. For example:
- I go. → Where do I go? (wh-question formed using inversion, with do-support required in this case)
- He goes. → Who goes? (no inversion, because the question word who is the subject)
Note that inversion does not apply in indirect questions: I wonder where he is (not ... where is he). Indirect yes-no questions can be expressed using if or whether as the interrogative word: Ask them whether/if they saw him*.
Negative questions are formed similarly; however if the verb undergoing inversion has a contraction with not, then it is possible to invert the subject with this contraction as a whole. For example:
- John is going. (affirmative)
- John is not going. / John isn't going. (negative, with and without contraction)
- Isn't John going? / Is John not going? (negative question, with and without contraction respectively)
Tag questions are formed with a special verb and pronoun subject: isn't it?; were there?; am I not?
A2 / Elementary / Pre-intermediate
A CEFR A2 level English language user is considered to be at an elementary level. At this level, an individual is expected to have a basic understanding of the English language and be able to use simple phrases and sentences to communicate in everyday situations. They should be able to understand and use basic grammar and vocabulary, and be able to understand short, simple texts.
At A2 level, They can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). They can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. They can describe in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. They can also interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.
Difficulty: Easy
Easy difficulty. Difficulty levels represent author's opinion about how hard a question or challenge is.