Whose As a Relative Pronoun

Whose is a possessive word. As a relative pronoun, it can connect two clauses. Note that whose replaces words like his, her, its and their.

Study the examples given below.

• I know a man. His son studies in the US.

We can connect these two clauses with whose.

• I know a man whose son studies in the US. (Here we use the relative pronoun ‘whose’ instead of the possessive word ‘his’.)

More examples are given below.

• I have a friend. Her mother runs a beauty parlour in the town.
• I have a friend whose mother runs a beauty parlour in the town.
• I saw a girl. Her beauty took my breath away.
• I saw a girl whose beauty took my breath away.
• I watched a movie. I don’t remember its name.
• I watched a movie whose name I don’t remember. (Here the relative pronoun ‘whose’ replaces the pronoun ‘its’.)