{"id":634,"date":"2026-01-26T16:39:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/grammarbasics\/?post_type=chapter&p=634"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:38:02","slug":"pronoun-antecedent-agreement","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/grammarbasics\/chapter\/pronoun-antecedent-agreement\/","title":{"raw":"Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement","rendered":"Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement"},"content":{"raw":"I don't think you're going to like this chapter very much. I think you'll find it a bit too nit-picky. You won't see why clear pronoun agreement is such a big deal. And you know what? I often feel that way too. In fact, I don't think you should even read this chapter until you understand all the other stuff in the book really well.\r\n\r\nBut once you're ready, I hope you'll give this chapter a shot because it will give you one last tool in your editor's toolkit, one last way to make your writing clearer and more economical.\r\n\r\nLet's get started.\r\n

Pronouns Point Back<\/h4>\r\nRemember from an earlier chapter that pronouns are words that stand in place of nouns<\/a>. In the following sentence, for example, the word she<\/em> stands in place of the name\u00a0Margery<\/em>.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Margery<\/span> did not come to school this week because she<\/span> was traveling in France.<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nIn this sentence, readers understand who she<\/em> refers to because they've seen the name (a proper noun) earlier in the sentence. We call the noun being replaced by the pronoun its [pb_glossary id=\"372\"]antecedent[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>. And what you need to know is this: all pronouns need to have a single, clear antecedent.\r\n\r\nLet's take a moment now to identify some pronoun-antecedent pairs.\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"36\"]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

I don’t think you’re going to like this chapter very much. I think you’ll find it a bit too nit-picky. You won’t see why clear pronoun agreement is such a big deal. And you know what? I often feel that way too. In fact, I don’t think you should even read this chapter until you understand all the other stuff in the book really well.<\/p>\n

But once you’re ready, I hope you’ll give this chapter a shot because it will give you one last tool in your editor’s toolkit, one last way to make your writing clearer and more economical.<\/p>\n

Let’s get started.<\/p>\n

Pronouns Point Back<\/h4>\n

Remember from an earlier chapter that pronouns are words that stand in place of nouns<\/a>. In the following sentence, for example, the word she<\/em> stands in place of the name\u00a0Margery<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Margery<\/span> did not come to school this week because she<\/span> was traveling in France.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this sentence, readers understand who she<\/em> refers to because they’ve seen the name (a proper noun) earlier in the sentence. We call the noun being replaced by the pronoun its antecedent<\/a><\/strong>. And what you need to know is this: all pronouns need to have a single, clear antecedent.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a moment now to identify some pronoun-antecedent pairs.<\/p>\n

\n