III. PRONOUN REFERENCE:

• Indefinite Pronouns
• Collective Nouns
• Comparing with PN
• Possessive PN and Objects of Prepositions

I. S-V AGREEMENT

II. PRONOUN AGREEMENT

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COMMON ERRORS

SENTENCE ERRORS

SPELLING ERRORS

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POS

MECHANICS

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BARD

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A) **INDEFINITE PRONOUNS**

·       most indefinite pronouns take SINGULAR verbs and pronouns

·       a few take EITHER singular or plural, depending on the object of the preposition

·       a few take PLURAL only

                                                          (*Depend on the

                     Object of Preposition*)

·       Each of the women on the cross country team runs well in her new shoes.

·       Everybody has a place that he/she likes to visit often. (*generalizations like this frequently begin your essays—so get it right*)

·       Some of the moldy bread is still in its wrapper.

·       Some of the men have begun to grow their playoff beards.

·       Several, fearing the amount of required work, sprint to the Registrar’s Office immediately following their first class with Dr. Housenick.  

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B) *With COLLECTIVE NOUNS:

·       collective nouns, such as audience, class, army, jury, family, team, and herd, 

·       usually take the SINGULAR verb (is/was) and SINGULAR pronoun (its); however,

·       when the members of these groups act separately, then such collective nouns are PLURAL;

·       hint:  if the word individual (or its adverb form with an -ly) fits into the sentence, then the sense is PLURAL;

·       simple solution:  when we write, most of us automatically put in the sense we intend; for example:

o      The individual members of the jury took their seats.

o      The individual soldiers fired their guns.

o      The committee members submitted their ballots.

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C) *COMPARING with PRONOUNS:

·       remember to spell “thAn” correctly (“thEn” is an adverb)

·       use the subjective form of the pronoun

o      when we speak comparisons, we often abbreviate the sentence, dropping the verb:

o      Jennifer believes she is smarter than she/her.

o      Rob can dance better than she/her.

o      to determine the proper pronoun choice, add the verb at the end of the sentence:

o      Jennifer believes she is smarter than she/her is.

o      Rob can dance better than she/her can dance.

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D) *PRONOUNS referring to POSSESSIVE NOUNS and OBJECTS OF PREPOSITION:

·       pronouns cannot refer back to a possessive noun AND

·       pronouns cannot refer back to nouns functioning as objects of a preposition:

·       In Thomas Harris’ recent novel, he discusses the childhood of Hannibal Lecter.

·       Solution: make the noun the subject of the sentence: