L.1 1. DEMONSTRATE COMMAND OF THE CONVENTIONS OF STANDARD ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND USAGE WHEN WRITING OR SPEAKING. D. RECOGNIZE AND CORRECT VAGUE PRONOUNS (I.E., ONES WITH UNCLEAR OR AMBIGUOUS ANTECEDENTS).* Pronouns

“TODAY WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT PRONOUNS THAT DON'T CLEARLY MATCH UP WITH THE NOUNS THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO REPLACE. READERS BECOME UNHAPPY WHEN THEY HAVE TO GUESS WHAT NOUN A WRITER IS TALKING ABOUT, OR READERS MAY EVEN CHUCKLE IF A PRONOUN SEEMS TO MATCH UP WITH THE WRONG NOUN. LATER, YOU’LL SEE SOME SENTENCES THAT ARE FUNNY ALL BECAUSE OF LITTLE PRONOUNS.” GRAMMAR GIRL PODCAST Whatever kind of pronoun you have, the pronoun takes the place of a specific noun you’ve already mentioned. The noun that a pronoun refers to is called an antecedent.

Common Pronoun Problems Problem 1: Missing or Faraway Antecedents Breathe in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out through your mouth. Hold what? My nose or my breath? The antecedent is missing in this sentence. How can we revise it? Breathe in through your nose, hold your breath for a few seconds, then breathe out through your mouth. In this case, we need to be more specific!

Problem 2: Putting the pronoun before the antecedent. If it’s available, be sure to order the cheesecake. A sentence like this can sometimes be frustrating to the reader, so we need to make sure we always put the antecedent first. (ante=before) How can we revise the sentence? If the cheesecake is available, be sure to order it.

Problem 3: Ambiguous Antecedents The room contained a chair, a desk, and a lone light bulb. It was twenty-six feet long by seventeen feet wide. Wow! That’s a big light bulb! The singular pronoun it could refer to any of the singular nouns in the first sentence: room, chair, desk, or light bulb, so the reader will chose the noun closest to the pronoun. How can we revise the sentence? The room was twenty-six feet long by seventeen feet wide, and it contained a chair, a desk, and a lone light bulb.

Revise the following sentences with your groups. When Jim’s son was a year old, he decided to get married. She enjoys oranges, bananas, and grapes, but they are her favorite. Ann told Lila that she hated her new hair style. Here at work they expect us to show initiative. She gave me her recipe for the dessert. If he is in Atlanta, the Christopher should definitely catch a Braves game.

Citation mar/pronouns-and-antecedents Grammar Girl. date accessed: April 10, mar/pronouns-and-antecedents