Grammar



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Grammar is a world all its own it seems when it comes to understanding the English language; and the various topics within it include pronouns, subject-verb agreement, and all areas we have already looked at in previous workbooks and areas we will look at as we move forward.

A pronoun replaces a noun within a sentence to help reduce the amount of redundancy and to add interest. For example, if you read the sentence. "Alex went to the movies and Alex got popcorn and a pop and then Alex went and chose a seat at the very back of the theatre" you would want to gouge your eyes out rather than continue reading! To prevent blindness, we can simply replace Alex with the pronoun he (or she).



The most common errors made in relation to pronoun usage are indefinite usage and/or ambiguous reference. And, we usually skip right over these errors in our writing, and even when speaking, because we make them so often, that we do not recognize them as wrong anymore!

Indefinite Pronouns

Here are some examples of indefinite pronouns:

  • Everyone knows it's impolite to stare.
  • Susie gave her book to someone and never got it back.
  • All are welcome to enter the slam poetry contest.

Confusion arises when personal pronouns do not clearly reference a definite antecedent. Take a look at the following example:

When the play begins, they don't let late-comers in until the end of the first Act.

At first glance, it seems like there is nothing wrong with this sentence, right? However, "they" represents a plural pronoun, which should refer to a plural subject; however, we do not have an antecedent. To whom is "they" referring to? Let's try rephrasing our sentence:

When the play begins, the ushers don't let late-comers in until the end of the first act.

Now it is clear that the ushers are the subject of the sentence.

For further information and practice with Indefinite Pronouns, please refer to pp. 36 and 79 of your English Language Arts Handbook for Secondary Students.

Ambiguous Reference 

When the play begins, the ushers don't let late-comers in until the end of the first act so they don't disrupt those who arrived on time.

Does "they" refer to the ushers or the late-comers? Because there are two plural nouns and subjects, "they" is an ambiguous reference.

We can also have ambiguous reference in a sentence when a pronoun refers to an implied concept or word, rather than a specific preceding noun. For example,

Michelle is a shy person, but she keeps it hidden.

Here, "it" refers to shyness, but the pronoun "it" is referring to a noun that isn't there. That is not good. A better sentence would be

Michelle is a shy person, but she keeps her shyness hidden.   

Your English Language Arts Handbook for Secondary Students pp. 83-84 offer further information regarding ambiguous reference.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-verb agreement is as common an error as indefinite pronouns or ambiguous reference. As its title suggests, this error occurs when the subject does not agree in number with the tense of the verb: both must be singular or both must be plural.

The bride, as well as her maid of honour, were photographed.

It seems like this sentence is correct: there is a bride and a maid of honour, therefore the plural verb were is correct. Not so fast! There is only one bride and just because another person is mentioned within the sentence does not make the verb plural: the verb should only agree with the subject of the sentence, in this case, the bride. The correct version would be

The bride, as well as her maid of honour, was photographed.

How about the following sentence?

Gloria is the only one of the dancers who have the ability to step into the lead role.

The subject is Gloria (the only one); therefore the verb needs to be singular: has.

Gloria is the only one of the dancers who has the ability to step into the lead role.

The English Language Arts Handbook for Secondary Students, pp. 76-80, provides further instruction regarding Subject-Verb Agreement.

These examples reinforce what has been stressed several times throughout the Writer's Toolbox mini-lessons: Clarity is the key when writing. You want to ensure that your reader understands your message, and the best way to do this is by being as clear as possible in all areas of your writing.