Grammar Friday: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Today I thought it would nice to have a short grammar lesson about pronoun-antecedent agreement. This is a big pet peeve for me: The mismatch of a pronoun (he, she, it, they) to the phrase it refers.



A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in three ways:

• In number

• In person

• In gender

Number:
Example: If a student wants to go to recess, they must finish the assigned homework.

This is WRONG! Yet, I hear people saying such things often. The subject is the student. This requires a singular pronoun (he or she)—not they.

Instead, the sentence should read as follows: If a student wants to go to recess, he or she must finish the assigned homework.

Person:
Example: If a student wants to go to recess, you must finish the assigned homework.

Again, you is not a correct pronoun for student. You is second person while student is third person.

Just as in the previous example, the sentence should read as follows: If a student wants to go to recess, he or she must finish the assigned homework.

Otherwise, you could reword to sentence to read: If you want to go to recess, you must finish the assigned homework.

Gender:
Example: If a student wants to go to recess, he must finish the assigned homework.

While this seems correct in the instances of number and person, it is incorrect in terms of gender.

Instead, the pronouns should include both he and she (see sentence above).

Otherwise, the sentence can be made plural as such: If students want to go to recess, they must finish the assigned homework.

Obvious, right? Not to everyone. Just another simple grammar rule to keep in mind.