GED Reasoning Through Language Arts
Pronouns & Antecedents
A pronoun (he, she, it, they, this) stands in for a noun named earlier — its antecedent. Two things go wrong: the pronoun disagrees with its noun in number, or it is unclear WHICH noun it stands for. The test loves both.
The words first
- pronoun
- a stand-in word: he, she, it, they, them, this, which
- antecedent
- the noun the pronoun replaces
- agreement
- matching in number: one teacher → she; teachers → they
- ambiguous reference
- a pronoun that could point at two different nouns
The method
AGREEMENT
The committee announced ITS decision. (one committee)
The members cast THEIR votes. (many members)
Each student must bring HIS OR HER id (each = singular)
THE CLARITY PROBLEM
✗ When Dana met her sister, SHE was upset.
who is she? could be either — ambiguous
✓ Dana was upset when she met her sister.
SUBJECT vs OBJECT FORMS
subjects: I, he, she, we, they (do the action)
objects: me, him, her, us, them (receive it)
Test trick: "between you and I" — WRONG. Between is a
preposition, so it takes objects: between you and ME.
Worked all the way through
The problem
Fix this sentence: "When the manager spoke to the intern, he seemed nervous."
- Step 1 — Find the pronoun."He."
- Step 2 — Hunt for its antecedent.Two candidates: the manager and the intern. Both are "he"-compatible.
- Step 3 — That is the flaw: ambiguous reference.The reader cannot tell who was nervous.
- Step 4 — Rewrite so only one reading exists."The intern seemed nervous when the manager spoke to him." Now the nervous one is named outright.
On the board
"he seemed nervous"
the pronoun
manager? intern?
two possible antecedents
flaw: ambiguous
name the person instead
"The intern seemed nervous…"
Answer
The intern seemed nervous when the manager spoke to him.
A second one, in a different form
"Every employee must submit (their / his or her) timesheet by Friday." Which is standard on the test?
antecedent: every employee
"every" = singular
formal test answer: his or her
singular matches singular
rewrite escape: "All employees … their"
plural fixes it neatly
Answer
his or her (or rewrite: All employees must submit their timesheets)
The usual mistake
Using 'me' as a subject or 'I' after a preposition.
Check yourself
Point your finger at the noun each pronoun replaces. If your finger hovers between two nouns, the sentence is broken no matter how natural it sounds.
Practice it
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