When it comes to homophones, or words that sound the same but are spelled differently, it can be rather difficult to tell the two words apart. When do you use which word? This post explains the difference between who’s and whose.

当谈到同音异义词，或发音相同但拼写不同的词汇，我们常常难以区分这样的词汇。什么时候用哪个词总是一个问题。本文将解释who's和whose的区别。

Who's v. Whose

Both these words deal with people. The difference is what situations they show.

who's和whose都用于人，区别在于使用的场合。

Who's definition

Who's的解释

Who's is the contraction for who and is.

Who's 是who和is的缩写

Every time you use this word, you must be asking or talking about someone. You should be able to substitute who is to any use of who's. If the sentence still makes sense, then you have used it correctly!

每次使用这个词的时候一定是在询问或谈论某人。Who's的使用方法与who is相同。如果替换这两个词后句意不变，那么你使用的就是正确的！

Most commonly, who's is used to ask a question. Note that using a contraction is usually standard in English speaking, but is not formal enough to use in a written piece.

一般而言，who's是用来提问的。但是请注意，在英语口语中使用缩写是正确的，但在书面语中使用则不够正式。

Who's the person in charge of organizing the food and drinks for this party?

谁负责宴会上的食物和饮料？

Who's knocking at the door?

谁在敲门？

Likewise, you can use it in statements.

同样地，可以在以下陈述语中使用。

I have a friend who's interested in the open position at your company.

我有个朋友，他对你们公司的公开职位感兴趣。

I can't believe who's walking around the neighborhood this late at night.

我不能相信这么晚还有人在附近走动。

Whose definition

Whose的解释

Whose is used to show possession.

whose用来表示所有或占有。

The list of equivalent words for whose includes my, his, her, our, your, etc. If you are asking whether something belongs to someone, you can use whose. Substituting any of the possessive pronouns for whose should make for a sentence that makes sense.

whose可以用来表示包括my, his, her, our, your等词所表示的一些所属关系。如果询问某样东西是否属于某人，可使用whose。可用相应所有格代词代替用由whose组成的句子。

Whose books are these that have been left all over the floor?

落在地板上的书是谁的？

I do not know whose trash that is, but it has been there for the past week.

我不知道那是谁的垃圾，但是已经在这里一周了。

In addition, whose can be a transition word to join an adjective phrase to a person or group of people. Whose and that both serve this purpose, and you use whose when the adjective is talking about a subject that is a person.

此外，whose可以作为一个过渡词加入形容词短语来表示对一个人或一群人进行限制。whose和that的作用都是进行限制，当形容词描述的主体是关于人的时候，将使用whose。

I just met a man whose daughter is studying for her college entrance exams, just like I am!

我刚刚遇到一个人，他的女儿正在为大学入学考试学习，和我一样！

The student whose parents do not have enough time to care for him or her is likely to do poorly in school, even if the family is of high socioeconomic status and hires tutors for the child.

即使学生家庭具有很高的社会经济地位，并为孩子聘请家教，但如果学生父母没有足够的时间照顾学生，学生仍可能在课堂上表现糟糕。