Pronoun agreement is an important aspect of any piece of writing. It refers to matching the pronoun you use to the noun it replaces in number, gender, and person. This ensures clarity and consistency in your writing.

However, pronoun agreement errors are common, especially in longer pieces of writing. It can be easy to lose track of the noun you are referring to and use an incorrect pronoun in its place. This can lead to confusion and even misunderstandings for your readers.

To help you spot and correct pronoun agreement errors, we have created an answer key to a pronoun agreement exercise. This exercise includes sentences with pronoun agreement errors, and each sentence has been corrected in the answer key.

Here are some example sentences:

– Incorrect: Each student should bring their own lunch.

– Correct: Each student should bring his or her own lunch.

Explanation: “Their” is a plural pronoun, but “each student” is singular. To avoid this error, you can use “his or her” to keep the sentence gender-neutral.

– Incorrect: Pascal and Greg went to the store. They bought a new bike.

– Correct: Pascal and Greg went to the store. Pascal bought a new bike.

Explanation: In the original sentence, it is unclear who bought the bike. To avoid this confusion, you can use the noun instead of a pronoun to refer to the person who bought the bike.

– Incorrect: The team celebrated their victory with a party.

– Correct: The team celebrated its victory with a party.

Explanation: “Team” is a singular noun, so it should be referred to with the pronoun “it” instead of “their.”

– Incorrect: Everyone should bring their own towel to the pool.

– Correct: Everyone should bring his or her own towel to the pool.

Explanation: Similar to the first example, “their” is a plural pronoun, but “everyone” is singular. To avoid this error, you can use “his or her” to keep the sentence gender-neutral.

– Incorrect: Sarah and her husband, he went to the movies last night.

– Correct: Sarah and her husband went to the movies last night.

Explanation: In the original sentence, the pronoun “he” is ambiguous. It is unclear whether it refers to Sarah`s husband or someone else. To avoid this confusion, you can simply remove the pronoun and rephrase the sentence.

By using this answer key to practice spotting and correcting pronoun agreement errors, you can improve the clarity and consistency of your writing. This will help you communicate your message to your readers more effectively and avoid misunderstandings.