{"id":13452,"date":"2020-08-12T08:33:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T13:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grockit.com\/gmat\/?p=158"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:39:40","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:39:40","slug":"gmat-sentence-corrections-pronouns-and-antecedents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/gmat\/gmat-sentence-corrections-pronouns-and-antecedents\/","title":{"rendered":"GMAT Sentence Correction: Pronouns and Antecedents"},"content":{"rendered":"

English grammar is complicated. Unfortunately, learning and comprehending grammar is made even tougher by the fact that some grammatical errors have become such an accepted part of our speech that very few of us even notice them anymore. Errors in pronouns\u2014words like he, she, it, they, our, <\/em>etc.\u2014and antecedents\u2014the words that the pronouns refer to\u2014are among the most common. Take this sentence as an example:
\nSentence A:<\/strong>
\nI spoke to someone at the help desk, and asked what kinds of product returns the company allows; they told me that they only take unopened items.<\/span><\/i>
\nThis sentence may not set off any \u201cgrammar alarms\u201d for the average reader and speaker of English; however, <\/span>you<\/span><\/i>, intrepid GMAT test-taker, need to be wiser than average and be aware of potential pronoun\/antecedent issues:<\/span>
\n 
\n

1. ARE \u201c<\/span><\/i>THEY\u201d<\/span><\/i> AND \u201c<\/span><\/i>THEIR\u201d<\/span><\/i> PLURAL PRONOUNS OR SINGULAR?<\/h3>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nSentence A, above, says \u201cI spoke to someone.\u201d The sentence later says, \u201cthey told me,\u201d and based on context it is clear that the \u201cthey\u201d in question is the \u201csomeone at the help desk.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSomeone\u201d is singular. You may have learned that \u201cthey\u201d and \u201ctheir\u201d are plural pronouns and should not be used to indicate gender neutrality. However, language evolves, and there is a growing acceptance of their use as singular pronouns; indeed, there is even evidence to suggest that \u201cthey\u201d may have been used as a singular pronoun as far back as the 14th century. In recognition of these evolving standards, the GMAT test-makers have stated that they will not test the issue of whether \u201cthey\u201d and \u201ctheir\u201d can refer to a single person. So, you will never see a sentence like Sentence A on the GMAT and have to fix this so-called error.<\/span>
\n

2. Companies, corporations, and similar entities are generally singular<\/h3>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nSentence A says that \u201cthey only take unopened items.\u201d Here, the \u201cthey\u201d in question is the company, since it is what \u201cthe company allows\u201d that is being discussed. A company is generally\u00a0 a singular entity, and should be referred to as \u201cit,\u201d unless that is clearly inappropriate for some reason. Note, for instance, that there are some organizations, such as the police, that are treated as plural; you would say \u201cthe police are . . . \u201c rather than \u201cthe police is . . . .\u201d\u00a0 So, unless you have reason to think otherwise, use singular pronouns to refer to a company or other organization.<\/span>
\n

3. Pronouns must have clear antecedents<\/h3>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\n\u00a0In Sentence A, the pronoun \u201cthey\u201d is used twice to refer to different things. Even if those uses were correct, the possible confusion would have justified some correction. If \u201cthey\u201d said that \u201cthey\u201d only take unopened items, was it the \u201csomeone\u201d or the \u201ccompany\u201d speaking? And do returns go through the \u201ccompany\u201d or \u201csomeone at the help desk\u201d? You may be able to figure out the answers logically, but on the GMAT, you\u2019re expected to correct sentences in such a way as to eliminate possible confusion about the antecedent to which a pronoun refers. Let\u2019s look at a couple of ways that we can give Sentence A new, grammatically correct life:<\/span>
\n
\nSentence B:<\/strong>
\nI spoke to someone at the help desk, and asked what kinds of product returns the company allows; she told me that it only takes unopened items.<\/em>
\nHere, we\u2019ve replaced the incorrect plural pronouns with singular ones, correcting the first and second issues; in so doing, we\u2019ve also eliminated the third problem, since there is no longer any potential confusion as to the correct antecedents for each pronoun. But this kind of straightforward correction won\u2019t always be an option, so let\u2019s look at another way that we could fix this sentence:
\nSentence C:<\/strong>
\nI spoke to someone at the help desk, and asked what kinds of product returns the company allows; I was told that only unopened items are accepted.<\/em>
\nHere, the pronouns have been eliminated completely. The result is a sentence that uses the passive voice.\u00a0 The passive voice is frowned upon, but it\u2019s not technically incorrect, and when it\u2019s the only alternative to a clear error like using a plural pronoun for a singular antecedent, go with it.
\nThe three rules of pronoun\/antecedent usage above are consistently tested; start practicing\u00a0and applying them now, and watch as Sentence Correction errors that you never even noticed before start popping out at you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English grammar is complicated. Unfortunately, learning and comprehending grammar is made even tougher by the fact that some grammatical errors have become such an accepted part of our speech that very few of us even notice them anymore. Errors in pronouns\u2014words like he, she, it, they, our, etc.\u2014and antecedents\u2014the words that the pronouns refer to\u2014are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[56,241],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33713,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13452\/revisions\/33713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}