What would be the right choice of pronoun for the sentences below from the choices in the parenthesis? Also what would be the correct antecedent from the choices in parenthesis?

1. Neither of the men has decided which team ________. (he prefers or they prefer) Antecedent (Neither, team, or men)

2. Each of the short story writers has a style of ______ own. (her or their) Antecedent (writer, style, Each)

Answer:

For number 1, the correct choices are "he prefers" (pronoun) and "Neither" (antecedent).

For number 2, the correct choices are "her" (pronoun) and "Each" (antecedent).

Explanation:

In colloquial language, we tend to not pay much attention to this, but when the subject of a sentence is "neither" or "each", we must use singular pronouns to refers to it. Since it is common for those words to be followed by plural nouns, we get easily confused, and end up using plural pronouns.

<u>1. Neither of the men has decided which team... --> Who has decided? Neither. Therefore, "neither" is the antecedent. Since it is singular, we must choose the singular option, "he prefers".</u>

<u>2. Each of the short story writers has a style of... own. --> Who has a style? Each. I know it sounds strange on its own, but "each" is the subject. Since it is singular, we must use "her", the singular pronoun, to complete the sentence.</u>

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3 years ago