A bad author is one whose mistakes you can find out and whose ignorance you can identify.

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Hello here, I'm confused why this sentence using the word "whose" as following, I don't know and I'm looking an answer. Can you help me?

A bad author is one whose mistakes you can find out and whose ignorance you can identify.
 

5jj

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Hello here, I'm confused why this sentence using uses the word "whose" as following, I don't know and I'm looking for an answer. Can you help me?

A bad author is one whose mistakes you can find out and whose ignorance you can identify.
Whose is the relative form of who.

A bad author is one who makes mistakes. - He/she makes mistakes.
A bad author is one whose mistakes you can find. - You can find his/her mistakes
.
 

SoothingDave

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"Whose" indicates possessive. It shows to whom the "mistakes" belong.

Native writers commonly misuse, or fail to use, this word. You will see "who's" used, but that is wrong. "Who's" is short for "who is."

Whose dog is this?

Who's going to the game today?
 

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that, who, what, which when = all are a relative form.

who, whose = both are a relative form?
Whose dog is this? ( Is it asking many people?)

Who's going to the game today? ( Is it asking you the game today, just single?)
 

jutfrank

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I'm not sure you've understood that whose has the meaning of possession.

Whose dog is this? ( Is it asking many people?)

A: Whose dog is this?
B: It's my dog.

The bold words both have the sense of possession. The question is asking who the owner of the dog is. The questioner wants to know who the dog belongs to. It could belong to just one person, or more than one person. The question could be addressed to just one person or to a group of people.
 

SoothingDave

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Who's going to the game today? ( Is it asking you the game today, just single?)


This is not an invitation. It's asking if anyone in a group is planning on attending the game.

If you were asking just one person, you would say "Are you going?"
 
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