SAT Reading & Writing: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
44+ practice questions in Praczo
The concept, explained
- 1
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent (the noun it refers to) in number. Singular noun → singular pronoun; plural noun → plural pronoun.
- 2
Indefinite pronouns (everyone, someone, each, either, neither, nobody) are singular and take singular pronouns.
- 3
Collective nouns (team, company, committee, audience) are singular in American English: "The team finished its season," not "their season."
- 4
When the pronoun is far from its antecedent, the SAT exploits the distance to trick you into agreeing with a nearby noun that isn't the actual antecedent.
- 5
Ambiguous pronouns — where "it" or "they" could refer to two different antecedents — are errors. The sentence must clearly identify the referent.
- ✗ Agreeing with the nearest noun rather than the actual antecedent: "The results of the experiment exceeded its expectations" — "its" refers to "experiment," not "results."
- ✗ Treating collective nouns as plural: "The board announced their decision" — formally, "The board announced its decision."
SAT-style practice
The board of directors voted to restructure the company's financial division; _____ announced the decision at a press conference the following morning.
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