Agreement of Pronoun and Antecedent Definitions: Pronoun: A word that replaces a noun or noun phrase A.) My dad’s striped yellow cat is hiding. B.) She is hiding. (She=pronoun) Antecedent: The original noun that the pronoun replaces. Pronoun = she Antecedent= cat

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Pronouns need to agree with (“match”) their antecedent’s number, person, and gender. E.g.: Cal brought his gerbil to school. There is agreement: Both the antecedent and pronoun are SINGULAR (number), 3rd PERSON (person), and MASCULINE (gender). Wrong (no agreement): Cal brought her gerbil to school. Cal brought their gerbil to school. Cal brought my gerbil to school.

Agreement in Number Use singular pronouns to refer to antecedents as each, either, neither, one, anyone, everyone, everybody, somebody, another, nobody, and a person. (These are SINGULAR) E.g.: Neither of the brothers likes (his/their) room.

Agreement in Number Continued If two or more singular antecedents are joined by OR or NOR, look at the one nearest. Either Connie or Sue left (her/their) headset in the library. Neither the manager nor the players were crazy about (his/their) new uniforms. However, if two antecedents are joined by AND, always use the plural: Jared and Carlos are finishing (his/their) assignments.

Agreement in Gender Use a masculine or feminine pronoun depending on the gender of the antecedent. Is either Connor or Grace bringing (his/her/his or her/their) baseball glove? When a person or everyone is used to refer to both sexes or either sex, you can choose to write the sentence in plural to avoid wordiness: Singular: A person should be allowed to choose (his or her/their) own footwear. Plural: People should be allowed to choose their own footwear.