The Grammar Doctor

Pronoun Consistency

If a writer starts a message using one pronoun as a substitute for a particular noun and then switches to another personal pronoun, the message may be unclear, and the language will certainly not be consistent.

PRONOUN SWITCH: When I was in school, the teachers used to make them follow the rules. You would not dare talk back to them.

In this message the speaker uses three different pronouns to refer to himself and his contemporaries in school. There is a first person pronoun (I), a third person pronoun (them), and a second person pronoun (you).

CORRECTED: When I was in school, the teachers used to make us follow the rules. We would not dare talk back to them.

In this sentence all the pronouns are in the first person (I, us, we).


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