English
Guidelines for Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
- Pronouns must agree with the words to which they refer (their antecedents) in gender and in number.
- Use masculine pronouns to refer to masculine antecedents, feminine pronouns to refer to feminine antecedents, and neuter pronouns to refer to antecedents without gender; eg., The man opened his briefcase. (Masculine gender applies.) A woman drove her car. (Feminine gender applies.) This package and its contents are top secret. (Neuter gender applies.)
- Use singular pronouns to refer to singular antecedents; eg., Everyone must bring his or her books to class. (The singular pronouns his and her refer to the singular subject everyone, which may be either masculine or feminine gender.) Somebody in the group of women left her (not their) wallet on the bus. Either of the stores has the right to refuse to open its doors.
- Use singular pronouns to refer to singular indefinite subjects and plural pronouns for plural indefinite subjects. Words such as everyone, somebody, anyone, something, and anybody are considered indefinite because they refer to no specific person or object. Some indefinite pronouns are always singular; others are always plural.
Always Singular |
|
Always Plural |
anybody anyone anything each either everyone |
everything neither nobody no one somebody someone |
both few many several |
- Use singular pronouns to refer to collective nouns and organization names; eg., The administration staff is moving its facilities next week. Brown, Cowan, & Frum, Inc., has signed its agreement with us.
- Use a plural pronoun to refer to two antecedents joined by and, whether the antecedents are singular or plural; eg., Our supervisor and his assistant will submit their report soon.
- Ignore intervening phrases—introduced by expressions such as together with, as well as, and in addition to—that separate a pronoun from its antecedent; eg., One of our teachers, along with several of the board members, was planning his retirement speech.
- When antecedents are joined by or or nor, make the pronoun agree with the antecedent closest to it; eg., Neither Fran nor Kim wanted her dress altered.
