Is "The girl who's bag is red is my friend" correct?
Sakshi writes "The girl who's bag is red is my friend", thinking "who's" can be used here to show possession. Her friend says this is the wrong word. Who is right?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: Her friend is right, it should be "whose"
Why
Sakshi's mix-up is one of the most common in English, and for a good reason — "who's" and "whose" sound completely identical when spoken aloud, so there's no audible clue to tell them apart, only spelling. "Who's", with the apostrophe, is always a short form of "who is" or "who has" — "Who's coming to the party?" means "Who IS coming". "Whose", without an apostrophe, is the possessive form, showing that something belongs to someone — exactly the job needed here, since the sentence means "the girl, HER bag is red", a possession, not "the girl IS bag is red", which makes no sense at all. Test: mentally expand "who's" back into its full form and check if it still makes sense — "the girl who IS bag is red" is clearly wrong, which proves "who's" was the wrong choice and the possessive "whose" was needed instead. Her friend is right: "whose" shows possession (whose bag), while "who's" is only ever short for "who is" or "who has" — the sentence needs "whose".
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