Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option
_____ dog is running around in ____ garden?
a) whose/ours
b) who’s/our
c) whose/our
d) who’s/ours

Answer 1

Hint: When we add “s” to a word with an apostrophe (‘) , it is short for “is”. If there is no apostrophe, it refers to possession. “Who’s the class monitor” means “Who is the class monitor”. Whose pen is this? (possession). “Why are you playing with our toys?” and “These pens are ours” both refer to possession.

Complete answer:
Option (c) is the correct answer because “whose” means possession. Whose dog, whose cat, whose copy, etc. all are asking about the person to whom the dog, cat, and copy belong. “Our” garden is correct because “ours” is used only when it is at the end of the sentence. If there is an object after “our”, we cannot add “s”.
Option a is wrong because “ours” is incorrect. “Ours” is used at the end of the sentence. For example, pens are ours. To use “our”, we have to write “These are our pens”.
Option (b) is wrong because “who’s dog” translates to “Who is dog…”. That is incorrect.
Option (d) is incorrect because first, it has “who’s” and second, it has “ours”, both of which are wrong to be used in the sentence.
Hence option (c) is the only correct option.

Note:
Always remember that ours, theirs, hers, etc. are used at the end of the sentence. If we have to use the words without the “s”, we use it before the object of the sentence- our pens, their house, her dress, etc. Whenever you see any word with an apostrophe, convert it into “is” and read the sentence and see if it makes sense. “She’s a bad girl” converts to “She is a bad girl”. This makes sense so it is correct. But, “Who’s car is this?” converts to “Who is car is this?” which is wrong.