Question

Which sentence from a student's reflective essay contains a pronoun and antecedent error and needs to be edited?

Answer 1

Answer:

• Option C. A person who cares about the environment will recycle their aluminum cans.

Explanation:

The sentence in the choice C, "A person who cares about the environment will recycle their aluminum can", contains a pronoun and antecedent error and needs to be edited.

Pronouns replace nouns. Some pronouns are it, its, his, him, her, them and their.

Antecedents are the noun that is replaced by the noun.

Pronouns and antecedents must agree in gender and number. This means that when the antecedent is feminine the pronoun must be feminine too, when the antecedent is masculine the pronoun must also be masculine; and the pronoun must be singular or plural depending of the antecedent.

In the sentence A person who cares about the environment will recycle their aluminum can. The antecedent is a person, which is singular, but the pronoun is their which is plural.

Hence, the pronoun and the antecedent do not agree. This is an error and the sentence should be edited.

To amend the error either the antecedent or the pronoun should be changed. The two possible ways to amend the error are:

1. Change the antecedent:

People who care about the environment will recycle their aluminum can.

2. Change the pronoun:

A person who cares about the environment will recycle its aluminum can.