Pronoun Agreement

Advanced Composition

Review

• What is a pronoun?

• What is an antecedent?

Agreement (PA)

• Pronouns and Antecedents should agree in:– Number– Gender

Number

• Singular pronouns refer to singular antecedents– Ryan isn’t worried about his AP exam.

• Plural pronouns refer to plural antecedents– The band members respect their drum major,

Allie Manwaring.

Gender

• Pretty obvious:– He, him, his…(boy)– She, her, hers…(girl)– It, its…(neuter antecedent)

• Questions?

Tricky Stuff

• Singular pronouns are used to refer to the following antecedents:– Anybody, anyone, anything, each, either,

everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, and something

• What kind of pronoun are all of the aforementioned words?

– Do these words indicate gender?

Tricky StuffExample

To figure out the gender, look at the phrases that follow the words.

Each of the girls on the track team must run her rear off to get in shape for the season.

One of the male performers in Beauty and the Beast forgot his solo.

Tricky StuffContinued…

• If the antecedent may be masculine or feminine, use both the masculine and feminine pronouns to refer to it.– Brad said everyone should mind his or her

business! He doesn’t understand why everyone told Ms. Roy he was skipping school.

– Each of the ski club participants paid his or her money for the trip.

Tricky Stuff

• Use a plural pronoun for 2 or more antecedents joined by “and”:– Amanda and Alexis decided they were going

to skip third period.

Tricky Stuff

• A singluar pronoun is used to refer to two or more singular pronouns joined by “or” or “nor”.– Either James or Jonny is willing to share his

lunch.– Neither Mary nor Jessica completed her

vocabulary terms.

Tricky Stuff

• When a singular and plural antecedent are joined by “or” or “nor”, the pronoun usually agrees with the nearest antecedent.– Neither Amy nor the rest of the class thought

their tests were fair.– Neither the entire class nor Amy thought her

test was fair.• DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO CHANGE

THIS…– The class thought their tests were unfair, and Amy

thought her test was unfair too.

Individual Practice

• Complete Exercise #2 on page 703