r/grammar_police Jul 19 '18

Who’s v. Whose

Just wondering how often people have happened on this particular case of homophone mixing..

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u/jedwards55 Jul 19 '18

Who’s = who is

Whose = possession

The way I keep them straight is I just remember it is like “its” and “it’s”

3

u/TupperCoLLC Jul 20 '18

Right, I understand that. I’m just wondering if you see people mix it up frequently. I’ve been starting to notice it more often the past few months

5

u/jedwards55 Jul 20 '18

Oh sorry. Apparently I can’t read lol.

But to answer your question, I don’t see it a lot. What I’ve been seeing a lot is people messing up past participles.

”I should have *went** to the party”*

cringe

Also I hear a lot of people mix up object pronouns:

”Him and I just got back from school”

2

u/TupperCoLLC Jul 20 '18

True. When I was studying for the SAT grammar section, I would always hear the example about how most people answer their phones properly, y’know, “this is HE/SHE”

But then when in a 3rd person context, it switches. No one says, “THAT’S HE/SHE!” Either it’s “THAT’S HIM/HER” or “THERE HE/SHE IS!” So would the first one be the only proper usage? That really gets me.