Answer to Question #220123 in English for Nina

Question

As noted, English also has the pronoun-anteeedent agreement which ask a pronounn to match with its antecedent in number, person, and gender value, Consider the following sentences and identify the errors in the usage of the pronouns. In doing so, provide the lexical entries for the pronoun and its anteedent to see what values are mismatching. 

a. The dog goes wild. He always messes up my front garden

b. No one knows on this bus seems to know their way around this part Seoul

c. If people want to succeed in corporate life, she has to know the rulesof the game.

d. Anyone with a family history of heart disease should have their cholesterol checked.

e. Each ceramic tile and aluminium alley sample used in the experiment retained their initial hardness.

Answer 1

a.      The dog goes wild. He always messes up my front garden

Here ‘the dog’ is singular. Thus, ‘he’ replaces ‘the dog’

b.     No one knows on this bus seems to know their way around this part Seoul

‘No one’ is plural. Therefore ‘their’ replaces ‘no one’

c.      If people want to succeed in corporate life, she has to know the rules of the game.

‘People’ is plural, but ‘she has’ is singular. Therefore, it cannot replace ‘people’. The sentence should read; ‘If people want to succeed in corporate life, they have to know the rules of the game.

d.     Anyone with a family history of heart disease should have their cholesterol checked.

‘Anyone is plural. Therefore, ‘their’ replaces ‘anyone’

e.      Each ceramic tile and aluminium alley sample used in the experiment retained their initial hardness.

‘Each’ is singular, but ‘their’ is plural. As a result, it cannot replace ‘each’. The sentence should read; ‘Each ceramic tile and aluminium alley sample used in the experiment retained its initial hardness.’