WE ALL:

• For some reason, people are quick to find the error in “you all,”

• but they miss it in “we all.”

• We is a plural pronoun and already includes everyone, so it is redundant to add the “all” part.

• Simply say “we” or “all of us” or “everyone” (but mind the next error).

EVERYONE-HIS/HER:

• Too many people make a Pronoun Agreement error by using “their” to refer back to "everyone" (or another indefinite PN which takes a singular antecedent).

• Use a different subject or plural noun.

PRONOUN REFERENCE/AGREEMENT:

• Pronouns replace nouns; thus, Pronouns must agree in number with the noun they replace. That is,

  • you need a singular Pronoun to match/refer back to a singular noun, and

  • you need a plural Pronoun to refer back to a plural noun.

• Sounds simple, but it gets tricky with the Indefinite Pronouns.

  • Most of these take a singular pronoun, even though it seems that it should be a plural pronoun.

  • anybody/one/thing, everybody/one/thing, each, either, every, neither, none

  • nobody/one/thing, and somebody/one/thing will take SINGULAR Pronouns

    • as in “Each of the students submitted his/her essays.”

    • Here, “his/her” refers to each, not students, because “each” is the proper subject and “students” is the object of the preposition.

  • EXCEPTIONS:

    • both, a few, a couple of, many, several will take PLURAL verbs

    • all, any, half, more, most, no, and some will take PLURAL verbs if they refer to a plural countable noun like “facts” or “windows.”

      • (Indefinite Pronouns that refer to uncountable nouns like “furniture” or “jewelry” or “information” will take SINGULAR verbs.)

WHO-THAT:

• who -- refers to people, as in “A chocoholic is a person who constantly craves some form of chocolate.”

• that -- refers to animals or objects

WHO-WHOM:

• who -- the subject of a sentence; can be replaced by “he”

• whom -- object form; can be replaced by “him”

  • notice they both end in “M”

  • to whom, for whom, about whom