Pronoun-Antecedent
Agreement
What do you need to understand about pronoun-antecedent
agreement errors?
•What’s a pronoun?
•What’s an antecedent?
•What’s a pronoun-antecedent agreement error?
What’s a Pronoun?
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or
other pronoun
 It can take the place of a subject word
(I, you, he, she, it, we, they)

It can take the place of an object word
(me, you, him, her, it, us, them)
It can take the place of a possessive word
(my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its, our, ours, their,
theirs)

What’s an Antecedent?
The word that the pronoun replaces.

Hermione Granger threw her wand onto the floor
(“her” renames Hermione Granger‖).

When Ron Weasley saw the wand drop, he picked it
up and handed it to her.
(“it” renames the wand)

Then Ron and Hermione went to their Defense
Against the Dark Arts class.
(“their” renames Ron and Hermione)
Pronouns must agree with their
antecedent in three areas:
1)
Person
2) Number
3) Gender
Person
Here’s a sentence in which the pronoun and the
antecedent do not agree in person:
If a person wants to succeed at playing baseball, you
must practice routinely.
Notice the pronoun “you” is 2nd person, but the
antecedent “person” is 3rd person.
How Can We Fix This?
There’s a couple of ways this sentence could be corrected.
You could make both the pronoun and the antecedent 2nd person:
“If you want to succeed at playing baseball, you must
practice routinely.”
You could also change the pronoun to 3rd person:
“If a person wants to succeed at playing baseball, he must
practice routinely.”
Number
Here’s a sentence in which the pronoun and
antecedent do not agree in number:
An employee should always agree with
their boss.
Notice the pronoun “their” is plural, but the
antecedent “employee” is singular.
How Can We Fix This?
There’s a couple of ways this sentence could be corrected.
You could make the pronoun singular:
“An employee should always agree with his boss.”
You could also make the antecedent plural:
“Employees should always agree with their boss.”
Gender
Here’s a sentence in which the pronoun and antecedent
do not agree in gender:
As John stepped down from the train, she lost her
footing and stumbled to the ground.
Notice the pronouns “she” and “her” are both
feminine, while the antecedent “John” is masculine.
How Can We Fix This?
There’s a couple of ways this sentence could be corrected.
You could make the pronouns masculine:
“As John stepped down from the train, he lost his footing
and stumbled to the ground.”
You could also make the antecedent feminine.
“As Mary stepped down from the train, she lost her
footing and stumbled to the ground.