Showing posts with label pronoun agreement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pronoun agreement. Show all posts

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement

The antecedent of "they" is "person." Person is singular. They is plural. This is a disagreement. The sentence should read, "A developing story out of Little Rock Sunday night has one person claiming he was shot."

Friday, November 28, 2008

Facebook World Vision

This is a portion of a recent Facebook screen I encountered. The picture is adorable. The spacing if off a bit, but the error regarding the pronoun agreement is the one with which I take issue. "A child," which is the antecedent, is singular. "They" is plural. It is incorrect to use a singular antecedent and plural pronoun together. One should be changed. If the writer wanted to keep "a child," then he should use he/she, he, or she. As I have written in previous posts, I understand why writers use they, their, or them in place of singular pronouns such as she, he , her , or him. The plural pronouns are not gender-specific, are less offensive, and are not as cumbersome as writing the his/her or him/her combinations.