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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 9
Lesson 1: Subject-verb agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreementPronoun-antecedent agreement
An antecedent is “the thing that came before”. When you use a pronoun, it’s standing in for a word you used previously—that’s the antecedent. Join us as we demonstrate how to make sure that your pronouns and antecedents match up with one another: that’s called agreement!
Want to join the conversation?
- So I have a question about a question on the quiz for this video. The question asks to use the proper choice for the sentence:
"I’m expecting a shipment of fresh beets, but ____ late."
do you use: it's or they are?
Now it's would be used to have a proper pronoun-antecendent agreement, however it's more common (in my experience) that people refer to the driver(s) when referring to things like this so if someone used they are late would it still be, I guess grammatically correct?(13 votes)- You are expecting "a shipment of beets"
- "a" is a singular article, meaning one shipment
The pronoun should also be singular
- "it" is singular, and "they" is plural
- you want to use "it"
So the correct choice is "it's"
You definitely can use "they" (or "he" or "she") to refer to the driver(s), but not without having already mentioned "the driver" in the sentence. Otherwise, the reader may assume the pronoun refers to the previous noun (the shipment).
Hope this helps!(11 votes)
- I'm in 6 grade and I sorta understand and I kinda don't(1 vote)
- what don't you understand? It's hard to answer a question if it's so vague.(14 votes)
- Are the rules the same (usage as plural) when using they/them as singular pronouns? Or are there some differences? I know a few people who use those pronouns, and I want to make sure I am using proper English.(3 votes)
- Hello! They/Them pronoun user here! I know that for the most part it is indeed the same!
Example: "Aren't they so good at video games? Yeah, they are so cool!!"
"I love their cooking!"
"I love them so much!"
Now, the only thing which could be difficult is the Reflexive pronoun. Some people use Themself, and others use Themselves.
Examples:
"They love themselves" and
"They love themself"
I recommend you use "themselves"!
Other than that, there isn't much more to it!
Hope this helped! -Star(6 votes)
- I knew a man, a common farmer, the father of five sons,
and in them he father of five sons, and in them the fathers of sons.
This man was a wonderful vigor....
which noun phrase does "this father in the second sentence refers back to?
it's so obscure!(4 votes)- Dear Possible...
Your sample sentence confuses me. I think it needs to be re-written before I can even begin to offer an answer.(4 votes)
- When do we use "he or she" as opposed to "they"?(3 votes)
- Using “they” as a singular pronoun isn’t universally accepted, though that usage is increasing. “He or she”, while less smooth, sticks with pronouns that are only singular.(4 votes)
- is this different from subject - pronoun agreement?(4 votes)
- Yes it is. If you need to, you can always watch the previous video for more clarification.(1 vote)
- The monkeys are so bad they hit each other(4 votes)
- AtDavid says the monkeys threw snowballs but they had crummy aim. But would it also be correct if i were to say"The monkeys threw snowballs but had crummy aim."? 2:10(2 votes)
- you definitely can use "they" (or "he" or "she") to refer to the driver(s), but not without having already mentioned "the driver" in the sentence. Otherwise, the reader may assume the pronoun refers to the previous noun (the shipment).(1 vote)
- They, he, or she, cannot refer to "the shipment" because it is not alive. We generally use he/she/they etc for living things.(4 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello Grammarians,
hello visiting cousin Beth. - [Voiceover] Hello cousin David. - [Voiceover] So today
we're gonna be talking about pronoun-antecedent agreement. - [Voiceover] And what is that? - [Voiceover] An antecedent
is a thing that goes before. So ante, mean before, and
cedent, is like a going-ee thing. What I mean by that is that
if we're talking about, if we setup something in a sentence. So okay, we've got a sentence
like Jillian rode her bike to the grocery store. Fine, straight up
sentence, pretty ordinary. If we wanna refer to Jillian
again, but we want to use a pronoun, well, we
refer to Jillian as she. That's a women's name, so she. She bought some garlic and
a spoon, like you normally would when you go to the grocery store. When we talk about this pronoun she, in relation to this word,
this proper noun Jillian, Jillian is the antecedent,
is the thing that goes before the pronoun she, so that
whenever you use a pronoun, you are referring back to something else, the thing that went
before, the antecedent, the thing that has come previously. So you want to make sure
that these things match up. So for example, we know
from living in this culture, that Jillian is a women's
name, so it would probably be incorrect to refer to her has he. Jillian rode her bike
to the grocery store, he bought some garlic and a spoon. This sounds like we're
talking about someone else. So even within this initial sentence too, Jillian rode her bike
to the grocery store. We're referring back to Jillian using this possessive pronoun to define the bicycle. - [Voiceover] Because
it's a longer sentence. - [Voiceover] We're
using it to demonstrate the relationship between
Jillian and the bicycle. - [Voiceover] Gotcha. - [Voiceover] You also wanna
to make sure that pronouns and their antecedent agree in number, so if you said, what's a fun animal? - [Voiceover] Monkeys. - [Voiceover] Monkeys. So the monkeys threw snowballs,
but they had crummy aim. So we're using they to
refer back to the monkeys, so this thing is a plural noun, right? We're referring to multiple
monkeys, so it would be incorrect to say the
monkeys threw snowballs, but it had crummy aim,
because this makes it seem like we're talking about
one monkey, when in fact, we're talking about an army
of snowball chucking monkeys. We got our little monkey, maybe
a calobus or diana monkey. Got a little tuft, it's
throwing a snowball. And if that's an Old World
monkey, it probably doesn't have a fancy tail, this
one has a little tail. Let's say we have a whole bunch of them, we want to make sure that
we are operating under the standards of agreement. Beth, any questions? - [Voiceover] So you
can't have it anymore, because now you've got four monkeys. - [Voiceover] Right,
let me get rid of that. What should it be instead Beth? - [Voiceover] They,
because they is plural, and we don't know if
they're he's or she's. - [Voiceover] And even if we didn't, they kind of eliminates any
kind of gender distinction. - [Voiceover] Oh right. - [Voiceover] So the
monkeys threw snowballs, but they had crummy aim. Although these monkeys seem
to be doing pretty good at hitting each others in the heads, the tails, with their snowballs. So that's pronoun-antecedent agreement. So remember to make sure to line things up when relevant by gender. Jillian wrote her bike, she
bought some garlic and a spoon. And by number, so the
monkeys threw snowballs, but they had crummy aim. There's more than one
monkey, so you'd wanna use the plural third person pronoun. You can learn anything. David out. - [Voiceover] And Beth out.