EXERCISE 3. IN EACH SENTENCE, UNDERLINE THE CORRECT FORM OF THE PRONOU...

20. (Him and I, He and I) went on a rafting trip on the Nantahala River.

Agreement of a Pronoun with Its Antecedent

In Part One, Lesson 9, we learned that a pronoun must agree with its antecedent in num-

ber. (The word antecedent comes from two Latin words meaning “going before.” An an-

tecedent is the noun that the pronoun stands for.)

Look at the following sentence:

_x

A wolf is gentle with its young.

Its refers to wolf. Wolf is the antecedent of its. Wolf is singular. Therefore, its is singular.

(Notice that the antecedent “goes before” the pronoun.)

Now look at this sentence:

x

Wolves are gentle with their young.

Their refers to wolves. Wolves is the antecedent of their. Wolves is plural. Therefore, their

is plural.