Whose book is it?

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Though it sounds ridiculous, when a pupil asked me if we could use the sentence pattern as " Whose is the book" to ask about the owner of the book, I felt confused to answer him. Maybe the problem is about the part of speech of the word "whose".

Could anyone here tell me what is wrong with the saying "Whose is the book" ?

Thanks.

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There is nothing wrong with it.

Whose is the book? It is John's.

Whose is the dog that barks all night? I do not know.

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To whom, does the book belong?

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Miller wrote:

To whom, does the book belong?

That comma is definitely superfluous, not to mention wrong.

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contrex wrote:

There is nothing wrong with it.

Whose is the book? It is John's.

Whose is the dog that barks all night? I do not know.

contrex, I don't doubt your answer, but "Whose is the book" sounds very wrong to me. Couldn't figure out why. Now you're saying it's not wrong. Please do me a favor and explain this. I would say, "Whose book is this?"

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I'd say:

"To whom, does this book belong".

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Miller wrote:

I'd say:

"To whom, does this book belong".

Nothing wrong with the construction, but the comma is wrong.

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Roberta wrote:

"Whose is the book" sounds very wrong to me. Couldn't figure out why. Now you're saying it's not wrong. Please do me a favor and explain this. I would say, "Whose book is this?"

I'm sorry, Roberta, if that sounds wrong to you. It is right all the same.

"This" book is not the same as "the" book.

On the table were a bell, a book and a candle. "The bell belongs to my mother," explained Mary, "and the candle is Daddy's." "Whose is the book?" asked John. "I can't tell you that," Mary replied.

A quick Google for "whose is" found...

Whose is JERUSALEM ? Jerusalem is ONE CITY and belongs to ONE PEOPLE

Whose is the most popular open source database?

Whose is this Song?

See here...

http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/who_whom.html

Quote:

"Whose" is a Possessive Pronoun

"Whose" is a possessive pronoun like "his," "her" and "our." We use "whose" to find out which person something belongs to.

Examples:

Whose camera is this?
Whose dog is barking outside?
Whose cell phone keeps ringing?

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Roberta wrote:

Miller wrote:
I'd say:

"To whom, does this book belong".

Nothing wrong with the construction, but the comma is wrong.

I don't know why Miller persisted in his folly and posted his mistake twice. Also questions generally have one of these "?" at the end.

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There may be nothing grammatically wrong with "Whose is this book?" but it is not the way most of us would phrase that question. We would say, "Whose book is this?

And Miller, contrex is right about the comma. There should be no comma in "To whom does this book belong?"

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Mame wrote:

There may be nothing grammatically wrong with "Whose is this book?" but it is not the way most of us would phrase that question. We would say, "Whose book is this?

Who are "us", Mame? "Whose is this book?" is something that I might very well say, and I know plenty of other people who would too. Maybe it's a regional thing -- I am from England.

Also, "whom" is very rapidly falling out of use in UK English at least.

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Your being British explains it, then. We Canadians don't say 'whilst' either... sounds contrived to us.

Yes, I would say, "Whose is this?" but not "Whose is this book?" Sounds awkward.

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Mame wrote:

Your being British explains it, then. We Canadians don't say 'whilst' either... sounds contrived to us.

"Contrived"? What rubbish.

Excuse me, but that's what we call "bollocks" here in the UK. Mame, I think you ought to reflect on whether it could be possible for you to comment upon regional differences in English usage without slipping in snide comments. It's bad enough when the Yanks do it without the Canadians joining in!

I mean, I could say "We don't add 'eh' to the end of every sentence... sounds hayseedy to us". But I don't.

I am quite sure that when Canadians speak they do so naturally without stopping every couple of words to ask themselves "does this sound like something contrived, something a stereotypical Limey would say?".

Anyway, my father says "Whilst" but I don't think anybody under about 80 says that here any more.

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I beg to differ - I hear Brits saying 'whilst' all the time - we do get BBC and BBC Canada here, eh? All my UK relatives say it, all my husband's UK university colleagues say it, my daughter's colleagues in London said it...

You're awfully sensitive! Where's that stiff upper lip? I said we thought it sounded contrived (we in my family) and we do. That's not an insult; it's our opinion. I don't consider that a snide remark.

And you can say whatever you like about Canadians; fortunately, I'm not worried about what others think. In many cases, I'll agree, anyway. Eh? I don't mind being a little hayseed from Canada. There is nothing you can say about Canadians that I haven't heard or said myself.

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Let me conclude. You native speakers prefer "whose book is this". Although "whose is the book" is grammatically right, you wouldn't say it that way. Ok, acceptable!

Anyway, "whose is this" is absolutely correct in your daily language. That's interesting.

And you mentioned reginal difference of English use. It's reasonalbe that some English speakers would say "whose is the book" in their place. After all we have so many races who speak English as their mother tongue.

From what I have learnt from Oxford or Cambridge English, "whose book is this" is the best choice.

Thanks for your replies.

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hao, there is significance the phrase "is this?" that maybe you do not realise.

"This", used as here, means "as I am indicating", or "the item here".

Example: There are four books on the table.

situation (1)

I pick one book up. I ask, "Whose book is this?". I use "is this?" because I am indicating one book, which I am holding in my hand.

situation (2)

I do not touch a book, but I point at one of them I ask "Whose book is that?".

situation (3)

I neither touch nor point at any book. I ask, "Whose book is the red one?"

situation (4)

One by one, I pick up and look in each of the books and put it down again. Then I ask, "Whose book is the one in Latin?"

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Perhaps (and I'm not too sure so please dont gang up on me)
"Whose is the book?" sounds wrong (don't know if it actually is) because it is common for ''is'' to take a complement. For example:
"He is a doctor"; the ''he'' is inter-changeable (sp?) with the ''doctor'', they are one and the same.
Now when you say ''Whose is the book'', ''whose'' and ''book'' are not inter-changable (sp?) in the same way. Whereas ''Whose book is this", the book and the "this" referred to are the same thing, and the ''whose'' merely asks who owns it. I could very well be wrong though...

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Thanks for your detailed explanation, Contrex, yet I think I can differentiate "this" and "that". Actually, I'm afraid I cannot figure out what you intended to explain by the four examples.

Quincy, I believe you've got the point. "Whose" is an adjective and can by no means share the same reference as "the book" the noun!

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Whose book is it?

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