Pronoun/Antecdent Agreement

Pronouns stand in for nouns. Each pronoun stands in for a single noun called its antecedent [In Latin ante means "before" and cedent means "to go"].

Pronouns need to agree with the word they replace in number, gender, and person (just as verbs must agree with their subjects.). If the antecedent is singular, feminine, and third person, so is its pronoun, "Jill did not like her grammar grade." The singular, feminine, third person noun - Jill - demands a pronoun of the same sort - her.

NUMBER: Indefinite pronouns like anyone or everybody present a problem in agreement. They don't need antecedents, and their number is unclear to many people. You must train yourself to remember that they are SINGULAR. Think of the one in anyone. Think of everybody as if it were every-single-body.

Anyone coming to the party should bring his costume.
Anybody coming as Dracula should bring his fangs.
Everyone who shows up as Barney should return to her home.
Everybody who does the Trekie bit should check her phasers at the door.
Everything is not as bad as it seems.
Nothing that happened is what it seems.
One should never forget her manners.
Someone forgot his coat.
Somebody forgot his goat.

SOME INDEFINITE PRONOUNS CHANGE NUMBER!

Some of the guests are gone, yet some of the pate remains.
All of the guests are gone, yet all of the pate remains.
[Whether eaten or not, that pate is a single pile.]

GENDER: Modern usage demands gender equality. You can write his or her or just his or just her, but it may be more elegant to make the entire sentence plural. Instead of, "A person should study his or her grammar." you may want to write, "People should study their grammar."

PERSON: A common pronoun agreement error is shifting into second person - the you. Students often do this in their writing because they want to involve the reader, "Some readers find The Scarlet Letter a compelling book because they see the tension within it. You get pulled between Hester's passion and Arthur's desire to do good." The first sentence uses the third person they, but the second shifts to the second person you.

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