De quién vs. de quiénes

Question

When you use this question to ask who something belongs to, is the singular or plural form referring to the item(s) in question or the person/people it belongs to?

Por ejemplo:

¿De quién es éstos libros?

o

¿De quiénes son éstos libros?

Likewise:

¿De quién es la casa?

o

¿De quiénes es la casa? (como "To which family does the house belong?)

Answer 1

¿De quiénes son estos libros?

¿De quién son estos libros?

¿De quién es este libro?

¿De quién es la casa?

¿De quiénes es la casa?

These are correct. The singular and plural are conjugations of the verb.

So if I wanted to ask "To what group of people does this one book belong?" I would use "¿De quiénes es éste libro?" - kdwinn, Apr 2, 2010

este libro, but rest is correct - 0074b507, Apr 2, 2010

A single book is unlikely to be owned by more than one person but grammatically possible. - samdie, Apr 2, 2010

Answer 2

de quién/quiénes

It depends on whether you have reason to suppose that there is/are a single owner / multiple owners. Grammatically, both are possible.

Answer 3

The singular/plural verb conjugation depends on the subject of the verb, in your examples, la casa or estos libros; not on whether the object of the preposition (quien/quienes) is plural or singular.

éstos=demonstrative pronoun=these (ones)

estos=demonstrative adjective=these books