Using Whose in Adjective Clauses. Do you know who this girl is? I'll give you some hints. This is a photo of a girl
whose eyes could not see. This is a photo of a girl
whose ears could not hear. This is a photo of a girl whose teacher
taught her to read, write, and even speak. And this is a photo of a girl whose
name is famous all over the world. Do you know who this girl is? Right, it's Helen Keller. Now notice, all of the sentences
begin with the same name clause. This is a photo of a girl, followed by
adjective clauses that are underlined. Now, all of these adjective
clauses begin with the same word, whose, which is a possessive pronoun. Let's talk a little bit more
about possessive pronouns. The most common ones are my,
your, her, his, and its, our, and their, which are all
words that represent nouns and that show ownership or relationship. For instance, my hair is messy today. My hair, shows ownership. Mrs. McGee is their teacher. Their teacher, shows relationship. Now, let's talk about
a different possessive pronoun, one which we use with adjective clauses,
whose. Take a look at this photo. I want to say that I met this man and that there were certain features
about him that were unique. I met a man whose mustache is very long. What else could we say? I met a man whose voice is very deep. Hm, what about this photo? I want to say I saw a dog
with certain features. I saw a dog whose ears are very big. I saw a dog whose legs are short. Do you see a pattern? After whose add the noun. In these examples, we see whose mustache,
whose voice, whose ears, and whose legs, followed by the main
verb and the adjective clause. Great. So we know whose represents a noun. In adjective clauses, whose can represent either the subject or
the object of the main clause. This is a photo of a girl
whose eyes could not see. Whose represents girl. I met a man whose mustache is very long. Whose represents man. And I saw a dog whose ears are very big. Whose represents dog. Now, in all three of these sentences, do you think that whose represents the
subject or the object of the main clause? Good job. It's the object. But what about the subject? Take a look at this clause. The boy is the youngest. This is going to be our main clause, and notice that the boy is
the subject of the clause. We could say, the boy whose
shirt is red is the youngest, and whose represents the boy,
the subject of the main clause. Here's another example. The girl is the fastest. The girl whose hair is
black is the fastest. Whose represents girl,
the subject of the main clause. Great. Now, be careful,
because the possessive pronoun, whose, is not the same as who's,
which is a contraction of who is. See if you can fill in the blanks
with the correct whose. Number one, the lady blank holding
her belly is eight months pregnant. Number two, the lady blank belly is
very round is eight months pregnant. Did you figure it out? Number one, the lady who's, or who is, holding her belly is
eight months pregnant. Number two, the lady whose belly is
very round is eight months pregnant. Well, I want to thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.
