Pronoun Placement
Making noun reference clear
| PERSONAL PRONOUN BEFORE PRONOUN | PRONOUN BEFORE PERSONAL PRONOUN |
|---|---|
After mentioning a personal noun,to refer to the noun again (unless a new noun is introduced.) For this reason, the personal noun (antecedent) comes before the pronoun. |
Occasionally, the pronoun comes before the noun it refers to. This is like "putting the cart before the horse". More commonly, we place the noun before the pronoun. Antecedent means "goes before". |
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By the time they arrived, my family was very hungry. |
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Antecedent
— is a word that comes before and is represented by another word after it.
Pronoun
Unclear Reference
Antecedent of Same Gender
| NOUN OF SAME GENDER | CLOSEST NOUN OF SAME GENDER |
|---|---|
A pronoun refers to a noun of the same gender. When there is only one noun, the reference is easy to understand. |
A pronoun refers to a noun of the same gender. However, if there are two personal nouns of the same gender, then it refers to the closest noun. Note that some proper nouns (names) may be used for either gender! |
John gave Mary a recipe. She is a talented cook. (She refers to Mary) |
John was thanked by Mary. He is thoughtful. |
Tracy gave Robin a recipe. She is a talented cook. (She refers to ?) (Tracy and Robin are names that could be male or female.) |
Tracy (female) gave Robin (female) a recipe. She is a talented cook. |
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Tracy (female) gave Robin (male) a recipe. She is a talented cook. She refers to Tracy (the closest noun of female gender). |
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Robin was given a chicken recipe by Tracy. She is a talented cook. |
Practice 1
Cousins
Use the sentence clues (context) to figure out which pronoun to use to complete the sentence.
- Select the response from the list that best completes the sentence.
- Compare your response to the answer by clicking the "check" button.
Practice 2
Twins
- Select the word from each menu that best completes the sentence.
- Compare your response to the answer by clicking the "check" button to the right.