Why it is right: Now the singular possessive pronoun its matches the singular store name Saks.. The first pronoun refers to Carrie, so she, a singular, matches nicely.. Decoding Who, Tha
Trang 118 In fact, neither of Elizabeth’s daughters will ask for warts on _ nose,
choos-ing a tasteful cheek placement instead
19 A few cheek warts have already appeared in the tabloids because many stars want
some-thing dramatic for _ publicity photos
20 Each of the warts chosen by Elizabeth’s daughters has little white spots on
_
Working for the Man: Pronouns for Companies and Organizations
American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), Sears Roebuck & Co., the United Nations, and a ton of other businesses or community groups are waiting for the chance to mess up your pronoun choices How? They cleverly create names that sound plural, and unsurprisingly, many people pair them up with plural pronouns However, a moment of logical thinking tells you that each is one business and must therefore be referred to by a singular pronoun Here’s what I mean:
Wrong: Saks Fifth Avenue has put their designer lingerie on sale.
Why it is wrong: I was there last week and the lingerie was full price Also, the
pronoun their is plural, but Saks, despite the letter s at the end of the name, is
sin-gular because it’s one company
Right: Saks sometimes puts its designer lingerie on sale.
Why it is right: Now the singular possessive pronoun (its) matches the singular
store name (Saks)
In the following example and set of practice exercises, choose the correct pronoun for each sentence Just to keep you alert, I mixed in a couple of sentences in which the pronoun doesn’t refer to a singular company or organization The same principle applies: Singular matches with singular, and plural matches with plural
Q.Carrie patronizes Meyer and Frank because (she/they) likes (its/their) shoe department, which has a good supply of her favorite size-13 stiletto heels
A.she, its The first pronoun refers to Carrie, so she, a singular, matches nicely Carrie is not
only singular, but also unique when it comes to shoe size The second refers to the store,
which is singular also and thus merits the singular its.
21 Carrie, who is not noted for logical thinking, believes that the United Countries
Association should sell cookies to feed (its/their) “starving” staffers, even if the staffers have been stuffing (itself/himself or herself/themselves) for years
22 The World Health Maintenance Association (WHMA) answered Carrie’s letter with a
sug-gestion of (its/their) own
23 “Please work locally to overcome starvation,” read the reply “The WHMA will take care of
(its/their) own staff.”
24 Carrie, depressed by her failure to launch a cookie drive, immediately visited Mrs Moo’s
Cookie World to sample (its/their) merchandise
Trang 225 About 5,000 calories later, Carrie had completely drowned her sorrows and was ready to
take on the WHMA again “The WHMA needs to do a better job with labor relations (It/They) won’t win!” she screamed
26 Because her mouth was full at the time, Carrie choked on a bit of Macadamia Crunch,
which (she/it) had saved for last
27 “I’ll sue Mrs Moo’s Cookie World and all (its/their) subsidiaries,” vowed Carrie, after she
had been revived by a handsome emergency medical technician
28 “Don’t sue the EMT service,” muttered the technician “(It/They) can never get enough
funding.”
29 “I’m a supporter of the EMT service,” declared Carrie hoarsely because (she/it/they) still
had a bit of cookie in (her/its) throat
30 The technician was so nervous around Carrie that he called the National Institute of
Health (NIH) to check (its/their) policy on impacted cookie crumbs
31 The NIH wrote to the EMT service about the WHMA, and in (its/their) letter the NIH
requested additional information
32 “The NIH cannot speak about individual cookie crumbs, but Mrs Moo’s Cookie World did
report that macadamia nuts are (its/their) most popular ingredient,” read the letter
33 Carrie’s response was to question the NIH about (its/their) integrity.
34 “I think that Mrs Moo herself, the founder of Mrs Moo’s Cookie World, has bribed the
NIH, and (it/they) will always rule in favor of those who contribute money,” said Carrie
35 Mrs Moo, distressed at Carrie’s accusation, ate 12 cookies to calm herself; (it/they) were
delicious
Decoding Who, That, and Which
Most pronouns are either singular or plural, masculine or feminine or neuter, popular
or unpopular, good at math or barely passing arithmetic Okay, I went a little too far, but you get the point The characteristics of most pronouns are fixed But a couple
of pronouns change from singular to plural (or back) and from masculine to feminine
without a moment’s pause Who, which, and that take their meaning and
characteris-tics from the sentences in which they appear Here’s what I mean:
May, who was born in April, wants to change her name (The who is feminine and singular because it replaces the feminine, singular May.)
Her sisters, who were named after their birth months of June and August, support
May’s changes (The who is feminine and plural because it replaces sisters.)
A change in the meaning of who, which, or that would be an interesting but useless
fact except for one issue Whether a subject pronoun is singular or plural affects what sort of verb (singular or plural) is paired with it In the preceding sample sentences,
the who is paired with was when the who represents May and with were when the who represents sisters.
Trang 3Deciding singular/plural verb issues is especially tough sometimes:
She is one of the few quarterbacks who (is/are) ready for prime time
She is the only quarterback who (is/are) negotiating with the Jets
Leaving aside the issue of a female quarterback (hey, it could happen!), the key to this
sort of sentence is deciding what the pronoun represents If who means she, then of course you opt for a singular verb because she is a singular pronoun But if who means quarterbacks, the verb should be plural, because quarterbacks is plural Logic
tells you the answers:
She is one of the few quarterbacks who are ready for prime time.
She is the only quarterback who is negotiating with the Jets.
How many are ready for prime time? A few quarterbacks are ready — you football fans
can make the list — and she’s one of them The who in the first example clearly stands
in for quarterbacks, a plural In the second example just one person is negotiating — she.
Therefore, who is singular and so is the verb paired with it.
Catch as many correct verbs as you can in the following example sentence and practice exercises I promise that at least one of each pair in parentheses is what you want
Q.Kristin is one of the many lawyers on the fishing boat who (want/wants) to catch a shark
A.want How many lawyers want to catch a shark, according to this sentence? One or more
than one? The sentence tells you that quite a lot of lawyers are in that category, so the
who stands in for the group of lawyers Bingo: A plural verb is needed to match the
plural who.
36 The shark that Kristin caught was the only one that (was/were) hungry enough to take the
odd bait that Kristin offered
37 The bait that (was/were) on sale at the market when Kristin went shopping was extremely
cheap (just like Kristin herself)
38 “I know that there is at least one shark that (likes/like) peanut butter,” reasoned Kristin.
39 Kristin’s fellow shark fans, who (sails/sail) even in the winter, read a lot about these
ani-mals on the Internet
40 The only one of the shark sites that (doesn’t/don’t) appeal to Kristin is the one sponsored
by the Stop Fishing Society
41 Could it be that Kristin is one of the shark fans who (believes/believe) the Great White is a
vegetarian?
42 Why did Kristin choose a bait that (is/are) completely unappetizing when dunked in salt
water?
43 One of the many experienced sailors who (was/were) laughing at Kristin’s bait exclaimed,
“Peanut butter can’t catch anything!”
44 I’m going to take Kristin’s shark to the only taxidermist that (is/are) willing to stuff such a
catch
45 In the mouth of the shark he is planning to mount a jar of one of the many brands of
peanut butter that (is/are) shark-friendly
Trang 4Getting Down to Specifics: Avoiding Improper Pronoun References
Pronoun rules are far more rigid than even the U.S tax code The underlying princi-ple, that one pronoun may replace one and only one matching noun, bends only a tiny
bit by allowing they, for instance, to take the place of more than one name (Ida, Mary,
and Joan, for example, may be replaced by they.) In common, informal speech and
writing, pronouns are sometimes sent to fill other roles But if you’re going for cor-rect, formal English, don’t ask a pronoun to violate the rules
A common error is to ask a pronoun to stand in for an idea expressed by a whole sen-tence or paragraph (Pronouns can’t replace verbs or noun/verb combos.) The
pro-nouns that, which, and this are often misused in this way.
Wrong: Jeffrey handed in a late, error-filled report, which annoyed his boss.
Why it’s wrong: The pronoun which improperly refers to the whole sentence In
formal English the pronoun has to replace one and only one noun
Right: Jeffrey’s report, which annoyed his boss, was late and error-filled (Now
which refers to report, a noun.)
Also right: The fact that Jeffrey’s report was late and error-filled annoyed his
boss (Sometimes the best way to fix one of these sentences is to eliminate the pronoun entirely.)
Another common mistake is to send in a pronoun that approaches, but doesn’t match, the noun it’s replacing:
Wrong: Jeffrey’s sports marketing course sounds interesting, but I don’t want to
be one
Why it’s wrong: One what? Sports marketing course? I don’t think so The one
replaces sports marketer (or sports marketing executive), but the sentence has no noun to match one.
Right: Jeffrey’s sports marketing course sounds interesting, but I don’t want to
enroll in it (Now it replaces sports marketing — a better match.)
Also right: Jeffrey is studying to become a sports marketer, but I don’t want to be
one (Now one replaces sports marketer.)
Fix the pronoun problem in the following example sentence and practice exercises
Some are correct as written When you find one, write “correct” in the blank Rewrite the clunkers so that every pronoun refers to an appropriate noun Remember that sometimes you have to dump the pronoun entirely in order to correct the mistake
Note: The incorrect sentences have more than one answer; in the following example, I
show you two possibilities, but in the answers section of this chapter, I provide only one possible answer
Q.Jeffrey’s dream job features a corner office, three-hour lunches, and frequent “research” junkets to Tahiti, which is unlikely given that he has no skill whatsoever
Trang 5
A.Given that he has no skill whatsoever, Jeffrey is unlikely to get his dream job, which features a corner office, three-hour lunches, and frequent “research” junkets to Tahiti.
The preceding sentence is just one possible solution, in which the pronoun which takes
the place of job Here’s another: The fact that Jeffrey has no skill whatsoever makes his
dream job, which features a corner office, three-hour lunches, and frequent “research”
junkets to Tahiti, unlikely Any sentence that achieves the goal of one noun out, one
pro-noun in is fine The original doesn’t work because which replaces an entire sentence,
Jeffrey’s dream job features a corner office, three-hour lunches, and frequent “research” jun-kets to Tahiti.
46 Jeffrey jogged for an hour in an effort to work off the pounds he had gained during his last
three-hour lunch, but this didn’t help
47 He’s always admired the superhero’s flat-ab look, but no matter how hard he tries, he
can’t be one
48 The 15 sit-ups that were prescribed by his exercise coach didn’t help at all.
49 Jeffrey’s next fitness effort ended in disaster; that did not discourage him.
50 He simply ignored the arrest warrant and continued to run; this was only a temporary
solution
51 Next, Jeffrey joined a gym, where he recites Shakespeare’s sonnets, which help him to
stay focused
52 The great poet inspired Jeffrey to study it also.
Trang 6
53 “No, I did not see the car when I directed my bicycle into the street,” testified Jeffrey, “but
that wasn’t the cause of the accident.”
54 “The driver was distracted by his cell phone, which rang at the exact moment I started to
ride,” explained Jeffrey
55 The judge was not impressed by Jeffrey’s testimony and fined him, and Jeffrey paid it.
56 When Jeffrey paid the fine, the court clerk quoted Shakespeare, which impressed Jeffrey
very much
57 “I see you are a sonneteer,” commented Jeffrey as he smiled and gave the clerk a romantic
look; she wasn’t impressed by this at all
58 “Please pay your fine and leave the room,” she roared, and that flattened Jeffrey’s hopes
for a Saturday-night date
59 The clerk never dates anyone from work, which is a wise policy.
60 The clerk quotes poetry because she’s hoping to become a literary critic; Jeffrey majored
in it in college, so in theory he is a good match for her