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a pronoun must agree in person and number with its antecedent, the word to which the pronoun refers, and the reference must be clear. Singular pronouns are used to refer to singular antecedents and plural pronouns are used to refer to plural antecedents. (See pronoun peference.)
Carl rigged his yawl with new sails.
Since the students requested the test, the instructor gave it to them.
Hugh and Aaron practived jujitsu unthi they collapsed on the mats.
Jan or Pam will give her flute rendition of Pachelbel's Kanon in D.
Neither the students nore the teachers are presenting their position at the meeting.
The council members or the mayor will loose her supporters over this disagreement.
Since sentences that follow this convention often sound awkward, such at the preceding example, writers usually rework them.
The mayor or the council members will lose their supporters over this disagreement.
Words such as army, audience, class, committee, group, herd, public, and team are singular in form, but they name groups of individuals. When a collective noun refers to a group as a single unit, use a singular pronoun.
The committee announced that it will vote on Friday.
When a collective noun refers to a group's members as individuals, use a plural pronoun. (See agreement of collective nouns and verbs.)
The committee remained in their chairs.
NOTE: Take special care to avoid mistakenly treating a collective noun as both singular and plural in the same sentence.
The troop is making their own plans. [singular verb and plural pronoun.]
The troop is making its own plans. [Corrected.]
Most indefinite pronouns - such as anybody, anyone, each, everybody, everyone, nobody, one, none, somebody, someone, and something - are singular and refer to a single unspecified person or thing; consequently, they call for singular pronouns.
Something ominous made its presence felt in the woods.
Each of the women had her book published.
Everyoneon the men's cross-country team ran his best race.
In the preceeding examples the gender of the antecedents is clear from the context, but often the gender of the antecedent of an indefinite pronoun is unknown or mixed. Traditionally in such cases, a masculine pronoun has been used to refer to the indefinite pronoun.
Everyone living in the apartment building did his best to clean the halls.
Although men and women are probably living in the apartment building, grammatical convention calls for the masculine pronoun his to refer to the indefinite pronoun everyone. This practice, however, is changing because using he or his ro refer to indefinite pronouns in the sentence ignores the presence of women. As an alternative you can recast such a sentence by making the antecedent plural; by using he or she, his or her; or by avoiding pronouns to refer to indefinite pronouns.
People living in the apartment building did their best to clean the halls. {Making the antecedent plural.]
Everyone living in the apartment building did his or her best to clean the halls. [Using his or her.]
Everyone living in the apartment building kept the halls as clean as possible.
NOTE: Avoid overusing he or she, his or her. Repeating those constructions excessively will make your writing unwieldy and monotonous.
Who refers to persons and sometimes to animals that have names.
Jenkins is the dentist who pulled my wisdom teeth.
Their dog Flash, who seems harmless, bit a burglar on the heel last week.
Which refers to amimals and things.
Their cat, which is pure-bred Siamese, cost a week's wages.
Venezuela, which is South America's largest oil producer, is a charter member of OPEC.
That refers to animals, things, and sometimes to persons. (See nonrestrictive elements, restrictive elements.)
The creek that flows into the pasture has gone dry.
Representatives that take political junkets cost texpayers millions of dollars annually.
NOTE: Whose, the possessive form of who, is often used to refer to animals and things to avoid awkward constructions using of which.
This is a riddle the answer of which no longer interests me.
This is a riddle whose answer no longer interests me.