Understand the problem.

1 1 RULES FOR FINDING AND FIXING PRONOUN AGREEMENT ERRORS Understand the problem . Whenever you use a personal pronoun like she, it, or they, you first have to have an antecedent, the word that the pronoun is replacing. Read this sentence: G u s t a v o s l o w e d t o t h e s p e e d l i m i t w h e n he s a w t h e p o l i c e c r u i s e r i n t h e r e a r v i e w m i r r o r . The pronoun he replaces Gustavo. Pronouns like he will keep you from repeating Gustavo, Gustavo, Gustavo over and over again. The pronoun must agree with its antecedent. To navigate this agreement successfully, you will need to know these singular and plural pronoun forms: SI N G U L A R PL U R A L he, she, it him, her, it his, her, hers, its himself, herself, itself they them their, theirs themselves The general rule for pronoun agreement is straightforward: A singular antecedent requires a singular pronoun; a plural antecedent needs a plural pronoun.

2 Read these examples: T h e b o y s c r a t c h e d h i s a r m p i t . T h e b o y s s c r a t c h e d t h e i r a r m p i t s . 2 In most cases, you won't need to debate whether you need the singular or plural form. The spoken English you have heard will help you make the right pronoun choice when you write. Use the correct pronoun in tricky situations. English unfortunately includes some special agreement situations. These will require your more careful attention. KN O W H O W E A C H A N D E V E R Y C A N C OM P L I C A T E P R O N O U N A G RE E M E N T. In math, 1 + 1 = 2. This rule applies to pronoun agreement as well. If you have 1 singular noun + 1 singular noun, then together they = 2 things, or a plural antecedent. Read these examples: T h e w o o d p e c k e r a n d h i s m a t e t r i e d t h eir b e s t t o o u s t t h e s q u i r r e l w h o h a d s t o l e n t h e i r n e s t.

3 R o n a l d w a n t e d t h e a t t e n t i o n o f t h e c h e e r l e a d e r a n d t h e b a t o n t w i r l e r , b u t h e c o u l d n o t m a k e t h e m l o o k h i s w a y . The plural pronouns their and them are logical and ear-pleasing choices for woodpecker + mate and cheerleader + baton twirler, respectively. Two words, however, have incredible sentence power. Each and every are singular and can strong-arm an otherwise plural antecedent to become singular as well. Watch what happens: T h e c o w b o y a n d h i s h o r s e dr a n k t h e i r f i l l a t t h e d e s e r t o a s i s . E a c h c o w b o y a n d h o r s e d r a n k h i s f i l l a t t h e d e s e r t o a s i s . E v e r y c o w b o y , h o r s e , p a c k m u l e , t r a i l h a n d , a n d c o o k d r a n k h i s f i l l a t t h e d e s e r t o a s i s.

4 Each and every will also change the verbs that have to agree: W h e n e v e r a d i n e r w a l k s i n f i v e m i n u t e s b e f o r e c l o s i n g , t h e c o o k a n d w a i t r e s s s i g h a n d r o l l t h e i r e y e s . 3 W h e n e v e r a d i n e r w a l k s i n f i v e m i n u t e s b e f o r e c l o s i n g , e v e r y c o o k a n d w a i t r e s s s i g h s a n d r o l l s h e r e y e s . UN D E R S T A N D H O W C O R R E L A T I V E C O N J U N C TI O N S C A N C O N F U S E P R O N O UN A G R E E M E N T. Exercise caution when you use correlative conjunctions like either .. or, neither .. nor, and not only .. but also. Because correlative conjunctions have two parts, you'll find two separate antecedents. Read these examples: N o t o n l y t h e h a n d p i c k e d f l o w e r s b u t a l s o t h e h o m e m a d e p e a n u t b u t t e r p i e w i l l w i n B r i a n a ' s h e a r t w i t h i t s t h o u g h t f u l n e s s.

5 N o t o n l y t h e h o m e m a d e p e a n u t b u t t e r p i e b u t a l s o t h e h a n d p i c k e d f l o w e r s w i l l w i n B r i a n a ' s h e a r t w i t h t h e i r t h o u g h t f u l n e s s . Notice that you have two antecedents, the homemade peanut butter pie and the handpicked flowers. Use the closer of the two antecedents to determine if you need a singular or plural pronoun. RE C O G N I Z E T H E P R O B L E MS T H A T S I N G U L A R I N D E F I N I T E P R O N O U N S C A N CAUSE. Indefinite pronouns, a special class of words, will often be antecedents. Some indefinite pronouns despite the illogic are always singular: SI N G U L A R IN D E F I N I T E PR O N O U N S each, either, neither anybody, anyone, anything everybody, everyone, everything nobody, no one, nothing somebody, someone, something When people talk, logic wins, so you will hear plural pronouns with these words.

6 But when you write, words like everyone, somebody, and nothing are singular and require a singular pronoun for agreement. 4 E v e r y o n e o n t h e p l a n e t d e s e r v e s c l e a n w a t e r t o q u e n c h t h e i r h i s t h i r s t . C a n y o u b e l i e v e i t ? S o m e b o d y l e f t t h e i r h e r d o g i n a h o t c a r w i t h t h e w i n d o w s r o l l e d u p ! N o t h i n g i s i n t h e i r i t s p l a c e a f t e r t h e v i o l e n t s h a k i n g f r o m t h e e a r t h q u a k e . Because this group of indefinite pronouns is singular, your choice of singular pronoun might strike some people as sexist. If, for example, you say, E v e r y b o d y s h o u l d t a k e h i s s e a t . then the females present might take offense that you have excluded them. Or if you say, N o o n e n e e d s h e r m o n e y b e c a u s e t h e f o o d i s f r e e.

7 Then the males might wonder why they have to pay. One solution is to include both genders with constructions like he or she, him or her, his or hers, or him or herself. The problem with using these inclusive constructions is that they are awkward. Although you do maintain pronoun agreement and avoid offending one gender, these constructions wreck the cadence of a good sentence. Read a piece of professional writing an essay, a movie or book review, an opinion piece in the newspaper and you'll notice that real writers, those folks who engage audiences that number in the thousands or millions, will seldom, if ever, use a phrase like he or she. Instead, professional writers might revise the sentence so that a pronoun is unnecessary. Sometimes, they make the antecedent plural so that they can use the natural-sounding they, them, or their. Or they might decide to alternate he and she in the piece so that both genders get mentioned.

8 Using he or she or him or her is technically correct. But it's also bad style. Avoid these constructions if you can. RE A L I Z E T H A T N O T A L L I N D E F I N I T E P R O N O U N S A R E S T R I C T L Y S I N G U LAR. Another group of indefinite pronouns are singular or plural, depending on the information from the prepositional phrase that follows. 5 IN D E F I N I T E PR O N O U N S TH A T CA N BE SI N G U L A R O R PL U R A L all, any, none*, more, most, some Read these examples: S o m e o f t h i s f o o t w e a r s m e l l s b e c a u s e T i n a w e a r s it t o t h e b a r n . S o m e o f t h e s e s h o e s s m e l l b e c a u s e T i n a w e a r s t h e m t o t h e b a r n . In the first sentence, footwear makes some singular, so it is the pronoun that agrees. In the second sentence, shoes, a plural noun, has all the power. Some becomes plural too, and them is the appropriate pronoun for agreement.

9 *Some people consider none a strictly singular word, a contraction of no one. We at Grammar Bytes! subscribe to the alternative belief that none is the opposite of all, and, like all, can be either singular or plural. Exercises here will reflect that belief. KN O W H O W T O H A N D L E P R O N O U N A G R E EM E N T W I T H C O L L E C T I V E N O U N S. Collective nouns name groups [things] composed of members [usually people]. Here are examples: CO L L E C T I V E NO U N S army, audience, board, cabinet, class committee, company, corporation, council department, faculty, family, firm, group jury, majority, minority, navy public, school, senate, team, troupe When the members of the group act in unison everyone doing essentially the same thing at the same time then the collective noun is singular and requires singular pronouns for agreement. Read these examples: T h e f a m i l y i s a t t h e t a b l e , r e a d y f o r i t s d i n n e r , w h e n G r a n d m a p r e p a r e s h e r d e l i c i o u s c h i c k e n p o t p i e.

10 6 T h e c o m m i t t e e d e c i d e d t o s p e n d i t s b u d g e t on s u r p l u s y o-y o s f o r t h e o f f i c e r s . T h e t e a m a g r e e d t o h o s t a c a r w a s h t o f i n a n c e i t s f a r t h e s t a w a y g a m e . When, however, the members of the group act as individuals each person taking on separate responsibilities or actions then the collective noun is plural and requires plural pronouns for agreement. Look what happens: W h e n G r a n d p a b e g i n s b o i l i n g l i v e r , t h e f a m i l y q u i c k l y f i n d o t h e r p l a n s f o r t h e i r d i n n e r . A t t h e c a r w a s h , t h e t e a m t o o k t h e i r p l a c e s s o t h a t e a c h v e h i c l e g o t v a c u u m e d , w a s h e d , a n d d r i e d . T h e co m m i t t e e d i s a g r e e i f t h e y s h o u l d o f f e r B i l l i e f i n a n c i a l a s s i s t a n c e a f t e r h e s u f f e r e d a c o n c u s s i o n d u r i n g a n u n f o r t u n a t e yo-y o a c c i d e n t.