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Grammatically Correct: The Secret Life of Pronouns

by Dodici Azpadu


061957-firey-orange-jelly-icon-people-things-people-singing200The problem with pronouns is them turn up where him least expect those, which case they is confused by who. Any questions?

No errors show up when Microsoft Word’s grammar checker is used on the opening sentence of this article. It’s possible the sentence received a pass because the errors in it crashed the correction function. Enough said about relying on a grammar checker for pronoun errors.

Consider the types of pronouns writers need to use correctly: personal, demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative, possessive, reciprocal, reflexive, and relative. I tell my English 101 students that I don’t care if they know the names of parts of speech, so long as they use words correctly. For writers, however, knowing the parts of speech and how they function is essential to craft. After all, if writers were painters they would know how and when to mix cadmium white and cerulean blue.

In my previous article, “Grammatically Correct: Pronoun Consistency,” I concentrated on pronoun agreement using personal and indefinite pronouns. In this column, I will note a few rules that help writers avoid the vague use of they, it, and you. A frequent error comes in the form of they say or it says constructions.

They predict that Federer will not be in the Australian Open finals this year.

The pronoun they must refer to a specific antecedent, and there is none.

Bloggers predict that Federer will not be in the Australian Open finals this year.

Bloggers is almost as vague as they, but it is a noun.

Writers who use the pronoun it carelessly can also go astray. The clause above—but it is a nounuses it correctly because it refers back to bloggers. Students frequently use the following faulty construction.

In the essay, it says Romeo was a teenager.

The construction is not simply wordy and vague. The pronoun it has no specific antecedent. A corrected version can be written as:

The essay describes Romeo as a teenager.

The pronoun you should not be used in a general sense to refer to a group. It should be used when the writer directly addresses the reader.

The rule book says you cannot bat out of turn.

Many people speak this way informally, but writers can maintain an informal tone and still write correctly. The tone is not appreciably changed by the correct form:

The rule book says players cannot bat out of turn.

Notice how correct grammar helps writers achieve clarity.


TracesOfAWoman100

Dodici Azpadu, MFA, PhD is a novelist, short story writer, and poet. Her fiction publications include: Saturday Night in the Prime of Life and Goat Song (Aunt Lute/Spinsters Ink) and subsequently Onlywoman (London, England). Living Room (2010) and Traces of a Woman (2014), both by Neuma Books, are available as ebooks. She’s currently at work on a novel, tentatively titled Living Lies.

WearingThePhantomOut100Her poetry publications include Wearing the Phantom Out (2013) and Rumi’s Falcon from Neuma Books. Individual poems have appeared in Malpais Review, Adobe Walls, ContraACultura (online), Parnassus, Sinister Wisdom, Latuca, The Rag, and The Burning Bush. Her work has also been anthologized in Centos: A Collage of Poems and Hey Pasean!
Dodici teaches “The Joy of Poetry” and “Craft of Creating Writing” classes through University of New Mexico’s Osher Lifelong Learning.


This article was originally published in the March 2011 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.




Grammatically Correct: Pronoun Consistency

by Dodici Azpadu


061957-firey-orange-jelly-icon-people-things-people-singing200Correct use of pronouns includes agreement with an antecedent, clear reference to an antecedent, and appropriate case selection. An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun substitutes for. All related pronouns and antecedents must agree in number—all singular or all plural.

Maria carried her son.
The parents carried their children.

Indefinite Pronouns

A frequent error is using plural pronouns with indefinite pronoun antecedents. Be on guard for the following words. Some may look plural, but they all require singular agreement.

anybody each everyone
nobody somebody anyone
either everything no one
someone anything everybody
neither nothing something

Everyone wants to do their best. [Incorrect]
Everyone wants to do his or her best
. [Correct]

In addition to using his or her, another way to correct mismatched indefinite pronoun antecedents and plural pronouns is to make the antecedent plural.

People want to do their best.

Making the antecedent plural is the easiest solution, and it avoids the wordy his or her repetition. Making the antecedent plural also avoids gender assumptions such as all doctors are male and all flight attendants are female.

The doctors went to their cars. [Not: The doctor went to his car.]
The flight attendants took their seats. [Not: The flight attendant took her seat.]

Generic or Collective Nouns

A second type of agreement error is using plural pronouns with generic nouns or collective nouns. Generic nouns refer to one member of a group such as trucker or cowboy.

The cowboy ethos includes a loner and his horse.

Collective nouns ordinarily operate as a unit, so the noun and its related pronouns should be singular.

The jury gave its verdict.

If the meaning is clearly plural, use the plural, but to be on the safe side, add a plural antecedent.

Members of the jury announced their verdict.

Errors with generic or collective nouns and pronouns can be corrected by the same three methods described for common agreement errors: use the singular his or her, create plural antecedents, or rewrite the sentence.

Compound Antecedents

Finally, note that compound antecedents joined with and are usually plural.

Jack and Jill went to their favorite watering hole.

However, compound antecedents joined by or or nor (or with (n)either/(n)or combinations) agree with the closest antecedent.

Neither the students nor Mr. Ghastly finished his job. [This is correct but should be rewritten to avoid confusion.]
Neither Mr. Ghastly nor the students finished their jobs. [Better]


TracesOfAWoman

Dodici Azpadu, MFA, PhD is a novelist, short story writer, and poet. Her fiction publications include: Saturday Night in the Prime of Life and Goat Song (Aunt Lute/Spinsters Ink) and subsequently Onlywoman (London, England). Living Room (2010) and Traces of a Woman (2014), both by Neuma Books, are available as ebooks. She’s currently at work on a novel, tentatively titled Living Lies.

WearingThePhantomOut100Her poetry publications include Wearing the Phantom Out (2013) and Rumi’s Falcon from Neuma Books. Individual poems have appeared in Malpais Review, Adobe Walls, ContraACultura (online), Parnassus, Sinister Wisdom, Latuca, The Rag, and The Burning Bush. Her work has also been anthologized in Centos: A Collage of Poems and Hey Pasean!
Dodici teaches “The Joy of Poetry” and “Craft of Creating Writing” classes through University of New Mexico’s Osher Lifelong Learning.


This article was originally published in the February 2011 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.




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