Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - whose

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. You use whose at the beginning of a relative clause where you mention something that belongs to or is associated with the person or thing mentioned in the previous clause. I saw a man shouting at a driver whose car was blocking the street. ...a speedboat, whose fifteen-strong crew claimed to belong to China’s navy. ...tourists whose vacations included an unexpected adventure. PRON 2. You use whose in questions to ask about the person or thing that something belongs to or is associated with. Whose was the better performance?... ‘Whose is this?’—‘It’s mine.’... ‘It wasn’t your fault, John.’—‘Whose, then?’... Whose car were they in?... QUEST 3. You use whose after certain words, especially verbs and adjectives, to introduce a clause where you talk about the person or thing that something belongs to or is associated with. I’m wondering whose mother she is then... I can’t remember whose idea it was for us to meet again. DET • Whose is also a conjunction. I wondered whose the coat was... That kind of person likes to spend money, it doesn’t matter whose it is. CONJ