THE PROBLEM: Pronoun agreement is when the pronoun must agree with its referent in terms of gender and number. (Female agrees with she and her, male agrees with he and his, and number agrees with it, its and they.)
EXAMPLES:
INCORRECT: Lisa lost his jacket at the party last night. (Gender doesn’t match)
CORRECT: Lisa lost her jacket at the party last night. (Female gender)
INCORRECT: John and Megan went out and he had a really good time. (Number doesn’t match)
CORRECT: John and Megan went out and they had a really good time. (Number)
HOW TO IDENTIFY SUBJECT AND PRONOUN AGREEMENT
1st check the sentence for any of the pronouns (he, she, his, her, it, its)
2nd look for antecedent (or what a pronoun refers to), see if the pronoun agrees with the noun.
3rd make sure it agrees by gender and numbers.
4th When fixing the problem you must always remember the pronoun must agree with the noun in a sentence.
EXERCISES:
a)
Christina has to wash ______ clothes before she goes out tonight.
b) Mike is staying over Matt’s house tonight. Mike needs _____ sleeping bag.
c) Corinne and Matt went out to dinner and ______ said it was very good.
d) Billy has ____ 8:15 class in Founders Hall.
e) John is going to ______ grandparents house for the weekend. ______ really doesn’t want to go.
f) Theresa has a softball game at 5:00. ____ wants her friends to go and cheer her on.
g) I got an 80 % on my last math test. So far ___ is the best grade I’ve gotten in awhile.
Answers: a) her, b) his, c) they, d) his, e) his, He, f) She, g) it
ONLINE RESOURCES:
“PRONOUN ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT” LITERACY EDUCATION ONLINE
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/pronante.html
“SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT” GUIDE TO GRAMMAR AND WRITTIN
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm
“PRONOUNS AND PRONOUN ANTECEDENT” AGREEMENT GUIDE TO GRAMMAR AND WRITTING
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/pronouns.htm
“PRONOUN /ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT WRITERS’ WORKSHOP
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/grammar/pronounagree.htm
“AGREEMENT: PRONOUN ANTECEDENT” BIG DOG’S GRAMMAR
http://gabiscott.com/bigdog/agreement_pa.htm
Relevant sections in the Bedford Handbook: See sections 22a (323-330) and 21a (309-322) for information on subject and pronoun agreement.
