WHATs

Whats is not a single, widely recognized term in English, but rather a form that can arise from different contexts. In everyday use, Whats most often appears as a misspelling or stylistic variant of what's, the contraction of what is or what has. The contracted form what's is common in informal speech and writing, where it helps to streamline sentences such as “What’s your plan?” or “What’s happened here?” The uncontracted variants what is and what has appear in formal prose and in situations where clarity and precision are valued.

In linguistic discussions or text analysis, what is referred to as a word token may be discussed as “what” in its various grammatical roles (pronoun, determiner, or adverb). The sequence “whats” without an apostrophe is not standard in general English; when encountered, it is typically treated as a nonstandard spelling, a typographical error, or a nonlexical string used for discussion about the word what itself rather than as a conventional word.

Etymology traces the pronoun/word what to Old English hwæt, from the West Germanic branch of the Germanic language family, with cognates in other Germanic languages. The contracted form what’s arose through the regular process of English cliticization and vowel reduction that yields concise, conversational syntax. See also what, what’s, and contraction in English grammar.