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Consider the following sentences:

  1. Please consider the person who's shirt is red.

  2. Please consider the car what's bumper is blue.

  3. Please consider the car who's bumper is blue.

Number 3 sounds wrong to me and number 1 sounds right. A car cannot be a "who" unless its a work of fiction. The question here is whether or not number 2 is correct form.

Is number 2 correct form? Why or why not? If not, what would be the correct form to refer to a specific inanimate object what's component is blue or based on some other criteria. What rule specifies that it is correct or not correct.

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Cygnuson
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  • They're all wrong. You should be using "whose" which is the possesive form of "who" and "that's" instead of "what's". – KillingTime Mar 15 '20 at 10:43
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    Does this answer your question? Can “whose” refer to an inanimate object?. But << whose vs who's >> is a basic question possibly acceptable on ELL. The only possessive usage involving Who's I can think of would be if you dropped the Dr from Dr Who's canine friend. Otherwise, who's means who is or who has. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 15 '20 at 11:26
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    @KillingTime No, that's is wrong there. What's is definitely non-standard, but certainly not unknown; a more standard way would be to use whose. – Andrew Leach Mar 15 '20 at 12:05
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    A more idiomatic phrasing could be: "Please consider the person in the red shirt" and "Please consider the car with the blue bumper." – Weather Vane Mar 15 '20 at 12:59

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