Possessive relative clauses (with ‘whose’)

Relative clauses are used to add information to a noun in a main clause. This includes describing who or what belongs to the noun in the main clause. These types of relative clauses are called possessive relative clauses and always begin with the possessive relative pronoun whose followed by the person or thing that belongs to the noun in the main clause.

This guide and a number of possessive relative clause activities are available to download as PDF documents.

While whose is usually used to describe the belongings of people, it can be used to describe any kind of possession, even for inanimate objects. The noun that follows whose (the possession) will always be the subject of the relative clause and cannot be omitted, regardless of whether it is a defining or non-defining relative clause. If this clause is non-defining, remember to separate the relative clause from the main clause with a comma.

Whose vs who’s

A common mistake, not just by students of English, but by native speakers too, is to confuse whose and who’s. The confusion arises as both words are pronounced the same; however, who’s is actually a contraction of who is, while whose is the only correct word to use as a possessive relative pronoun to introduce relative clauses.

How to use whose in a relative clause

Like regular relative clauses, a relative clause with whose is used to make two pieces of information more concise. In this case, one of the pieces of information will refer to the possession of the noun in the other piece of information. Take these two sentences for example:

The boy is on the street. The boy’s parents live at No.8.

In the first sentence, we are introduced to ‘the boy’. The second sentence contains information about a possession of the boy (his parents). We can place a relative clause beginning with the relative pronoun whose directly after ‘the boy’ in the main clause to combine these two pieces of information like this:

→ The boy whose parents live at No.8 is on the street. (‘whose’ = ‘the boy’s’)

Here are some more examples of sentences that can be combined with a relative clause that describes possession (notice the possessive case/adjective in the second sentence that shows what belongs to the noun in the first sentence):

The policeman was commended by the judge. The policeman’s actions led to the capture of the gang.

→ The police officer, whose actions led to the capture of the gang, was commended by the judge. (the actions belong to the police officer)

The cat is in the tree. The cat’s owner drives a BMW.

→ The cat whose owner drives a BMW is in the tree. (grammatically, the owner belongs to the cat!)

My workmate is coming to my birthday party. His wife works for the government.

→ My workmate, whose wife works for the government, is coming to my birthday party. (the wife belongs to my workmate – grammatically, of course!)

The car is back again. The car’s engine makes a lot of noise.

→ The car whose engine makes a lot of noise is back again. (the engine belongs to the car)

The author has released a new book. The author’s writing style is unique.

→ The author, whose writing style is unique, has released a new book. (the writing style belongs to the author)

The dog barked loudly. The dog’s tail was wagging.

→ The dog, whose tail was wagging, barked loudly. (the tail belongs to the dog)

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