Do you know Aunty Cedent? She is otherwise known as "antecedent," and she likes to come first (before pronouns). Ok, she's not really a person. And she doesn't even always come first, but she usually does. Instead of trying to explain further, let's look at an example.
In the following sentence, the ball is the antecedent.
The ball bounced before it popped.
The word "ball" comes before the word "it."The word "it" is the pronoun that refers back to the ball.
People who like to use big words might say that this sentence uses the proper pronoun-antecedent agreement. This just means that the pronoun "it" refers to the ball, and it does so correctly.
Here is an example of a sentence with a pronoun that doesn't clearly refer back to its antecedent.
Error: He played with the ball and the balloon, but it popped.
Did the ball or balloon pop? How can you be sure? You can't, because the ball or the balloon could be the antecedent for the pronoun "it." There is more than one way to fix this sentence. Here is one way.
Fixed: He played with the ball and the balloon, but the balloon popped.
Taking out the pronoun fixed the problem in this case.
Here's another example.
Error: After he drank the liquid, Joseph guessed that Dean was the mastermind.
Fixed: After Dean drank the liquid, Joseph guessed that Dean was the mastermind.
Again, taking out the pronoun fixes the problem. Dean was the mastermind all along.
Comments
Post a Comment