Lesson 4: Pronoun Issues

What's a Pronoun?
A Pronoun is a word that takes the place of  a noun or another pronoun.

• It can take the place of a subject word.
• It can take the place of an object word.
• It can take the place of a possessive word.
• All pronoun and their antecdents need to agree in person and number.

Agreement in Number
Use singular pronouns to refer to singular nouns and plural pronouns to refer to plural
nouns.
MISMATCH: A Gryffindor player went to the Quidditch pitch after midnight if they wanted
  to practice after hours.
OOPS!  The plural pronoun “they” refers to the singular “A Gryffindor player.”  We need either to change
the antecedent to make it plural like the pronoun, or change the pronoun to match the singular antecedent:
BETTER: Gryffindor players went to the Quidditch pitch after midnight if they wanted
  to practice after hours.


Agreement in Person
It’s best to maintain consistency in the person of pronouns as well.
PROBLEM: The students at Hogwarts soon learned that you had to watch out for Filch.
 This sentence is awkward because the pronoun “you” replaces the noun “students.”   Nouns are
always 3rd person words (only pronouns have 1st and 2nd person forms), so there’s a mismatch between the 3rd person noun “students” and the 2ndperson pronoun “you.”
 The problem is easy to fix, though:  just use a 3rd person pronoun – in this case plural “they” to agree with the plural noun “students”.
SOLUTION: The students at Hogwarts soon learned that they had to watch out for Filch.