Question

How does one check for pronoun/antecedent agreement?

Answer 1

Hint: A pronoun is a part of speech that replaces a noun. Example: Simon is a polite boy. Simon respects his elders. To make this sound less repetitive, we replace the noun ‘Simon’ with the pronoun ‘he’. Example: Simon is a polite boy. He respects his elders. And an antecedent is an expression that gives meaning to its proform. In the given example, the noun ‘Simon’ is the antecedent. We will see how to check a pronoun/antecedent agreement.

Complete answer:
Let us discuss a pronoun / antecedent agreement.
A Pronoun antecedent agreement is when the pronoun agrees in number, referring to singular or plural and person referring to first, second, or third person with its antecedent.
We will better understand this with the help of the following examples:-
Example:-
When an employee disagrees with their boss, the employee should take a stand. This is incorrect because the pronoun ’their’ by is in plural form whereas the antecedent ‘employee’ is in singular form.
Therefore, this is a pronoun/antecedent disagreement.

The correct sentence will be:- “When an employee disagrees with his or her boss, the employee should take a stand. This is pronoun/antecedent agreement as the pronoun his or her is in singular form and agrees with the antecedent which is in singular form as well.

Note: Matching a pronoun and an antecedent in terms of number can be tricky. To avoid pronoun and antecedent problems, you should take three steps:
-Identify the antecedent.
-Determine if the antecedent is singular or plural.
-Make sure the antecedent and pronoun match, preferably by making both plural if possible.