2.1 Nouns, Pronouns, and Agreement

Solve Problems with Pronoun Agreement

The noun that a pronoun replaces is called the antecedent . In the sentence below, the pronoun he refers to the antecedent Ben.

Ben is very eager, but he needs to slow down and work carefully.

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in three ways:

1. A pronoun and antecedent must agree in person . Person refers to the point of view of the writing. There are three points of view, or persons:

• The first person does the writing or speaking. First-person pronouns are I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours.

I am conducting performance reviews, so we need to meet.

• The second person is the audience. Second-person pronouns are you, your, yours.

As the office manager, you must order the supplies.

• The third person is the person or thing written about. Third-person pronouns are he, she, it, one, him, his, her, hers, its, they, them, their, theirs.

Ben is very eager, but he needs to slow down and work carefully.

2. A pronoun and its antecedent must agree in number . Singular antecedents take singular pronouns (Ben—he), and plural or compound antecedents take plural pronouns (Lisa and Ben—they).

3. A pronoun and its antecedent must agree in gender . For a female antecedent (Lisa), the pronoun should be feminine (she). For a male antecedent (Ben), the pronoun should be masculine (he). If a noun is neither male or female (patience), use it.

In the video below, the teacher corrects a paragraph that uses the wrong pronouns.