Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement — Worked example

- [Instructor] Okay, test takers. Let's give this reading and writing test question a look. Now, to save us time in this video, I'm gonna skip right to the question stem right here, and read that and the answer choices. So the question stem is asking: "Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English. Okay? So it also includes, that also includes, one also includes, they also include. If you'd like to take a shot at this question before I walk you through it, now's your chance to pause the video. Based on this question stem, I know that the question is concerned with conventions of Standard English, which is to say grammar, but what grammar concept is being tested? So I looked at the choices, right? And they're all the same except for the pronouns that they use: it, that, one, and they, which means we're looking at a pronoun-antecedent agreement question. Big words, but nothing to fear, I promise. Its syllable count is bigger than its bite. Let's review. A pronoun is a word that replaces any noun or set of nouns. So the walrus and the carpenter becomes them. The antecedent is a fancy grammar term that refers to that previously mentioned noun or nouns. If I refer to the walrus and the carpenter together in one sentence, and then later to them in another, the walrus and the carpenter is the antecedent, the thing that comes before for them. These questions will ask you to find the pronoun that fills in the blank, matching the antecedent from earlier in the passage. So then our strategy, the first thing we want to do is identify the antecedent, read the passage carefully and figure out what the blank most likely corresponds to. A good way to test antecedent is to plug each word or phrase you're checking into the blank to see if the sentence still makes sense. If it does, then you've found your antecedent. Next, determine if your antecedent is singular or plural. Finally, find the choice that matches. Let's head back into this question. Okay, remember that we already know this is a grammar question because we already glanced at the question stem. And we also know it's a pronoun-antecedent question, because we peeked at the choices. Time to read the passage carefully. Multiple discovery refers to the concept that new discoveries and inventions are often made independently by more than one scientist or inventor. But examples of multiple discovery aren't limited to formal science and mathematics. Blank. Okay, so we've got a definition of the concept of multiple discovery, but examples of multiple discovery aren't limited to formal science and mathematics. All right, and I underlined examples and aren't limited because I wanna simplify that sentence a little. The first sentence introduces the singular idea of multiple discovery, but the next sentence tells us that examples, plural, right, of multiple discovery aren't limited, right? So that's the subject I underlined is examples. The phrase "of multiple discovery" is a prepositional phrase that describes examples, the plural subject of the sentence. All right, so that brings us to the blank. Blank common technologies like cheese-making, charcoal, and the wheel-that were developed independently within different cultures. So what is doing the verb right? Our choices are all includes or include what is doing the including. Should it be multiple discovery includes common technologies or should it be examples include common technologies. These are examples we're talking about, examples of common technology, right? Cheese-making, charcoal, and the wheel. So we know our antecedent is examples and we know that examples is a plural noun. And from there, only one choice matches. They, choice, D, is the only plural pronoun here. That's our answer. Examples of multiple discovery aren't limited to formal science and mathematics. They, the examples, also include common technologies, blah, blah blah. See, I plugged it in. There you go. D is our answer because it has the plural pronoun that we need and it's the only choice that makes logical sense with the antecedent. Let's go over some top tips for this kind of question. So if it's uncertain what the antecedent is for a pronoun-antecedent agreement question, take your antecedent candidates and plug them into the blank. Like, take those candidates. Replace where the pronoun might go in the blank. The one that makes contextual sense is the antecedent and that'll help guide your choice. Many students find it helpful to plug the choices straight into the blank, one at a time. If you're short on time this strategy could be a winner for you. But for best results, make sure to read the whole passage through with each choice, not just the sentence it's part of. And once you've got your antecedent and you know whether it's singular or plural, you might just be able to find the odd one out. In this question, we had three singular choices and one plural choice, and the odd one out was our answer. Good luck out there. You've got this.