Grammar Tips: Pronouns and Antecedents

We’ve previously discussed subject–verb agreement on this blog. But it’s not just verbs that need to agree in a sentence; you also need to make sure that pronouns agree with antecedents. But since things are getting a bit technical already, we should explain what this means.

What Are Pronouns and Antecedents?

A pronoun stands in for another noun, usually to prevent repetition. The word that a pronoun replaces is known as its ‘antecedent’. For example:

The lion bared its teeth.

Here, the subject (i.e. the noun ‘lion’) is the antecedent, followed by the pronoun ‘its’. If we didn’t have a pronoun in the second part of the sentence, though, we’d be forced to repeat the word ‘lion’:

The lion bared the lion’s teeth.

And that sounds rather silly, which is why pronouns are such an important part of the English language. Now we just have to explain what it means for a pronoun to ‘agree’ with its antecedent.

Making Sure They Agree

This usually comes down to whether the antecedent noun is singular or plural. As a basic rule, singular nouns should always be followed by a singular pronoun, while plural nouns need a plural pronoun:

Singular: The dog chased its tail.

Plural: The ants are guarding their nest.

If this is all you remember about antecedent-pronoun agreement, you should be fine most of the time. However, there are a few cases where knowing which pronoun to use can be difficult.

Indefinite Pronouns

Ensuring agreement can be confusing with indefinite pronouns, especially if you want to avoid gendered language. For example, the word ‘somebody’ is a singular indefinite pronoun. If it is used as the main noun in a sentence, it should (in theory) be followed by another singular pronoun:

Somebody was here and he drank my coffee.

Grammatically, ‘somebody’ and ‘he’ are both singular. The problem here is that ‘he’ is gendered, while ‘somebody’ is gender neutral.

To avoid using gendered terms, many people now use ‘they’ as a gender-neutral singular pronoun. For instance:

Somebody was here and they drank my coffee.

However, technically ‘they’ is plural, so some people would deem this incorrect. In formal writing, it may therefore be better to rewrite the sentence to avoid faulty agreement.

Compound Subjects

Compound subjects are formed by joining more than one thing or person with a conjunction. And unless you know what to look for, these can cause problems with pronoun–antecedent agreement. When a compound subject is formed using ‘and’, it should always be followed by a plural pronoun:

Meet Bill and Ben. They love gardening.

But when a compound subject uses ‘or’ or ‘nor, we need to be more careful. The key here is that the pronoun should agree with the noun closest to it:

Either the pie or the cookies will win due to their delicious taste.

Here, the plural noun ‘cookies’ comes second, so we use the plural pronoun ‘their’ in the second half of the sentence.

If we were to switch the compound subject round, we would say:

Either the cookies or the pie will win due to its delicious taste.

This may sound less natural, so it’s usually better to put the singular term first when forming a compound subject with ‘or’, ‘nor’ or another correlative conjunction. But this is largely a matter of preference.

Collective Nouns

Finally, a quick word on collective nouns. These are singular terms that refer to a group or collection of some kind (e.g. ‘team’ refers to a group of people).

British English accepts both singular and plural pronouns with collective nouns, depending on the situation. When describing a group that is working together, you should treat it as singular:

The team won its match against the challengers.

However, when the members or a group are acting individually, you should use a plural term. For example:

The team lost because they were arguing among themselves.