Whose is it?

[Nightmare85]

Hello my friends,
I'm back
(I was on vacation for 2 weeks.)

I have plenty of new questions.
(Of course everything will be in an extra thread :up

When we don't know the word of an object, can we simply ask:
Whose is it?
Whose is this?

Let's say it's a "watering can", but you just don't know its name.
Does whose need an object?
Whose X is it?
Whose X is this?

I mean you could also say:
Whose thing is it?
Whose object is it?
(Of course it's not good English, but I don't know if you can let it out.)

Cheers!

 

[bhaisahab]

Hello my friends,
I'm back
(I was on vacation for 2 weeks.)

I have plenty of new questions.
(Of course everything will be in an extra thread :up

When we don't know the word of an object, can we simply ask:
Whose is it?
Whose is this?

Let's say it's a "watering can", but you just don't know its name.
Does whose need an object?
Whose X is it?
Whose X is this?

I mean you could also say:
Whose thing is it?
Whose object is it?
(Of course it's not good English, but I don't know if you can let it out.)

Cheers!

Hi Nightmare, welcome back.
If the the thing is in front of you, you can say simply "whose is this?". Of course if you are talking about something outside/out of view, a car perhaps, you would need to specify what it is you are talking about.
"Whose car is that out on the drive?"

 

[BobK]

:up: 'Whose' can be either a possessive adjective ('whose car') or a possessive pronoun ('Whose is this?) Similarly you could ask 'Which one/car... is yours?' Or 'Which is yours?' Neither is more or less grammatical than the other; they're both fine.

b

 

[birdeen's call]

]I mean you could also say:
Whose thing is it?
Whose object is it?
(Of course it's not good English, but I don't know if you can let it out.)

Hi Nightmare!
Why do you say it's bad English? I don't get it...

 

[hanky]

Hello my friends,
I'm back
(I was on vacation for 2 weeks.)

I have plenty of new questions.
(Of course everything will be in an extra thread :up

When we don't know the word of an object, can we simply ask:
Whose is it?
Whose is this?

Let's say it's a "watering can", but you just don't know its name.
Does whose need an object?
Whose X is it?
Whose X is this?

I mean you could also say:
Whose thing is it?
Whose object is it?
(Of course it's not good English, but I don't know if you can let it out.)

Cheers!

Regarding to the sentence in red, I suppose you meant "When we don't know the OWNER of an object", am I right?

 

[emsr2d2]

Regarding to the sentence in red, I suppose you meant "When we don't know the OWNER of an object", am I right?

I thought the original poster did actually mean what they said "When you don't know the name of an object..."

If you don't know what something is called, you can't say, for example, "Whose car is this?" if you don't know the word "car"! So I think they were asking if you can simply say "Whose is it/this?" while perhaps pointing at the object you don't know the word for.

 

[hanky]

I thought the original poster did actually mean what they said "When you don't know the name of an object..."

If you don't know what something is called, you can't say, for example, "Whose car is this?" if you don't know the word "car"! So I think they were asking if you can simply say "Whose is it/this?" while perhaps pointing at the object you don't know the word for.

Oh, I see. Thanks.

 

[Nightmare85]

Thank you for your replies :up:

Hi Nightmare!
Why do you say it's bad English? I don't get it...

Hi birdeen's call,
I made a small mistake.
Of course it's not bad English, it just sounds a bit stupid.
"Whose thing is this?"
(Maybe it's okay for a child to say such a sentence, but for us it could be "unpractical" ;-))

@hanky:
Yes, emsr2d2 is right.

Cheers!