whopronoun
uk/huː/us/huː/who pronoun (QUESTIONS)
A1 used especially in questions as the subject or object of a verb, when asking which person or people, or when asking what someone's name is:
Who did this?
Who's she?
Who are all those people?
She asked me if I knew who had got the job.
Who (also formal whom) do you want to talk to?
I don't know who to ask to the party.
used with verbs that relate to knowing, when you want to say that something is not known:
"Are they going to get married?" "Who knows?" (= It is not possible to know at the moment.)
Who can tell what will happen now?
More examples
- Who told you you could park there?
- Who have you invited to the party?
- Who won the match?
- Who did you vote for in the last election?
- Who is the president of France?
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: question words & expressions
- come
- devil
- extent
- how about...? idiom
- how, what, why, etc. on earth... idiom
- in God's/heaven's name idiom
- interrogative
- shall
- what the blazes...? idiom
- what's that (all) about (then)? idiom
- what's the score? idiom
- what/where/how/why the devil idiom
- whenever
- where
- which
- whither
- whose
- why
- world
- would you like...? idiom
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who pronoun (USED TO REFER)
A2 used as the subject or object of a verb to show which person you are referring to, or to add information about a person just mentioned. It is used for people, not things:
I think it was your dad who phoned.
She's one of those people who love to be the centre of attention.
He called James, who was a good friend as well as the family doctor.
The other people who (also that) live in the house are really friendly.
This is Gabriel, who I told you about.
More examples
- We need a mayor who is tough enough to clean up this town.
- There seems to be some confusion over who is actually giving the talk.
- She's part of a team of scientists who are engaged on/upon cancer research.
- Have the police got the man who did it yet?
- People who work in the trade can buy their books at a discount.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: relative forms
- howsoever
- or
- that
- what
- whatever
- whence
- whenever
- where
- whereby
- wheresoever
- wherever
- which
- whichever
- whither
- whoever
- whom
- whomever
- whose
- whosoever
- wot
Idiom(s)
who's who