Whose/who's and other homophones in English

[Serpent]

I'm not trying to be the grammar police here, but I love funny juxtapositions and this line in the original post struck me as funny given the context: "for someone who's native language does not have articles"

The line should read: for someone whose native language does not have articles.

"Who's" (who is) is the nominative case of the pronoun, while "whose" is the genitive case.

It's a mistake that native speakers make all the time, but I thought it was funny in a post asking why grammatical cases are considered so hard.

Well, in modern English it's simply a spelling convention. And one that's not very intuitive for native speakers.

[Josquin]

I'm not trying to be the grammar police here, but I love funny juxtapositions and this line in the original post struck me as funny given the context: "for someone who's native language does not have articles"

The line should read: for someone whose native language does not have articles.

"Who's" (who is) is the nominative case of the pronoun, while "whose" is the genitive case.

It's a mistake that native speakers make all the time, but I thought it was funny in a post asking why grammatical cases are considered so hard.

Well, in modern English it's simply a spelling convention. And one that's not very intuitive for native speakers.

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

[Saim]

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

Are you sure? They're both pronounced [hu:z] as far as I can tell. At least by me.

[Josquin]

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

Are you sure? They're both pronounced [hu:z] as far as I can tell. At least by me.

Are you sure? I don't know about Australian English, but in Received Pronunciation, which is what I learned at school, the pronunciation should be [hu:s]. Maybe, it can be voiced before voiced consonants, but otherwise it should be unvoiced. Please correct me if I'm totally wrong on this.

[Saim]

Are you sure? I don't know about Australian English, but in Received Pronunciation, which is what I learned at school, the pronunciation should be [hu:s]. Maybe, it can be voiced before voiced consonants, but otherwise it should be unvoiced. Please correct me if I'm totally wrong on this.

This is my pronunciation of who's in the house?, who's eaten an apple today?, whose apple is this?. Southeast Queensland.

https://vocaroo.com/i/s0hMiQbUlYKN

[Josquin]

Are you sure? I don't know about Australian English, but in Received Pronunciation, which is what I learned at school, the pronunciation should be [hu:s]. Maybe, it can be voiced before voiced consonants, but otherwise it should be unvoiced. Please correct me if I'm totally wrong on this.

This is my pronunciation of who's in the house?, who's eaten an apple today?, whose apple is this?. Southeast Queensland.

https://vocaroo.com/i/s0hMiQbUlYKN

Okay, you clearly pronounce it [hu:z]. But I'm still not quite sure whether or not the pronunciation of the s might depend on the surrounding sounds. On the other hand, maybe it's just interference from my native German devoicing of final consonants...

[tastyonions]

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

Are you sure? They're both pronounced [hu:z] as far as I can tell. At least by me. :lol:

Yeah, I definitely pronounce them both like that as well.

[Serpent]

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

Are you sure? They're both pronounced [hu:z] as far as I can tell. At least by me.

Are you sure? I don't know about Australian English, but in Received Pronunciation, which is what I learned at school, the pronunciation should be [hu:s]. Maybe, it can be voiced before voiced consonants, but otherwise it should be unvoiced. Please correct me if I'm totally wrong on this.

In my head they're pronounced differently too, just like there/their, but the difficulty many natives have indicates that to them there's no difference.

[vonPeterhof]

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

Are you sure? They're both pronounced [hu:z] as far as I can tell. At least by me.

Are you sure? I don't know about Australian English, but in Received Pronunciation, which is what I learned at school, the pronunciation should be [hu:s]. Maybe, it can be voiced before voiced consonants, but otherwise it should be unvoiced. Please correct me if I'm totally wrong on this.

In my head they're pronounced differently too, just like there/their, but the difficulty many natives have indicates that to them there's no difference.

I distinctly remember having thought that "there", "their" and "they're" all have different pronunciations (and even getting annoyed at native speakers for "messing them up" ), but I'm pretty sure that "who's" and "whose" always sounded the same to me.

[Speakeasy]

Well, in modern English it's simply a spelling convention. And one that's not very intuitive for native speakers.

It's not really only a spelling convention. "Who's" is pronounced [hu:s], while "whose" is pronounced [hu:z]. The spelling reflects the pronunciation.

As I am now seventy years of age, I can no longer say what "modern" English pronunciation is. Nevertheless, I still have vivid memories of how my parents, both of whom were raised in England, would bore into my pre-school, barely-receptive, and very confused little head their notions of proper pronunciation (all of my friends used to swear that my parents spoke with funny accents but, to me, they just sounded like mum and dad). Many of my parents' lessons were reinforced during my earliest years in Elementary School. Now then, ...

I do not recall anyone ever mentioning to me a difference in the pronunciation between "who's" and "whose" in what-I-would-call Standard English-Canadian (as I once knew it), not even my parents. However, I still remember being taught to emphasize the very slight differences in pronunciation of "their", "there", "there're", and "they're", a distinction that seems to no longer exist.