Question

Read the problem sentence and select the potential concern. Also provide an alternative phrasing for the sentence that would correct the concern.
Details of the relevant grammatical points can be expanded below the statement after an alternative phrasing is written.

1. One of your students left their book on the table.

a) Improper pronoun usage
b) Split infinitive
c) Dangling participle
d) Subject - verb disagreement

Answer 1

Answer:

The potencial concern in the sentence One of your students left their book on the table is a) improper pronoun usage.

Explanation:

An alternative phrasing that would correct the concern would be One of your students left his (or her) book on the table.

The original sentence contains an improper pronoun usage because the pronoun their does not agree in number with the subject of the sentence one of your students. The subject is singular, so the pronoun should be singular as well. Therefore, a singular possessive pronoun should be introduced.

Answer 2

Based on the given sentence above, the error that I can find is the incorrect use of the pronoun "their". Looking at the sentence, the subject is "One of your students", this means only one, and not all the students. Therefore, this should take a singular pronoun. So the correct sentence would be "One of your students left his or her book on the table." So the answer for this would be option A. Hope this helps.