Edit Student Writing Samples for Pronoun UseThe sentences in the activity below were written by English language learners. They contain pronoun errors.
• Click the error to see the correct form.
• Click the teacher icon and read the comments.
| Edit Student Writing Samples for Pronoun Use The sentences in the activity below were written by English language learners. They contain pronoun errors. • Click the error to see the correct form. • Click the teacher icon and read the comments. |
| 8. | I would do everythinganything to become successful and rich. |  The meaning of any is a, an, one, and in the case of noncount nouns, some. It is nonspecific and singular in meaning. Idiomatic usage is "I would do anything to become successful. [...any single thing - whatever it takes] | 2. | This experience happened one day before my family and meI moved to a different city. | Before is a subordinator that introduces a dependent clause. This clause has a compound subject. Me is objective case and can never be a subject. The writer should write..."before moved to a different city. |
| 3. | I understood that for theythem the money was more important than the truth. | For is a preposition and must be followed by an object. A subject pronoun can never follow a preposition. For money was more important than honesty. |
| 4. | It was necessary to sacrifice myself | The writer incorrectly uses a reflexive pronoun where the meaning calls for an intensive pronoun. Think of it this way. Did the writer put herself on an altar of sacrifice and kill herself for her son? Not quite. She wants to say that she had to make a lot of sacrifices for her son. She could use the intensive pronoun. I, myself, had to sacrifice for my son (or make a lot of sacrifices for my son). Clearly, there was no one else to help her. Or she could omit the reflexive pronoun and keep her sentence structure with the filler subject: It was necessary to make certain sacrifices for the sake of my son. |
| 5. | I will ask my children not to humiliate others or disgrace them by yourtheir language. | Just as verb tense must remain consistent, so must pronoun use. My, them, and their all have the same referent, which is . |
| 6. | No king, president, or prophet could do this by hisselfhimself. | Hisself is NOT a word in English. The intensive pronoun for him is . |
| 7. | When working in a company or business, people need to earn the respect of the owner so the peoplethey will be promoted. | We use pronouns to replace nouns in order to avoid repetition. When a noun is used twice within the same sentence, use the pronoun for second mention. In this case the subject pronoun should be . |
| 8. | The value of a good family is measured by how good theirits members are. | "A family" in this context refers to a group or unit. The possessive case pronoun should be . |
| 9. | If youthey remain in school for more than two semesters and don't miss classes, do yourtheir homework on time, and get good enough grades and pass yourtheir classes, those students would be good candidates to get free tuition. | The referent for all of these pronouns is . The sentence is awkward because the referent comes at the end of the sentence. Adjective clause structure would be much better. Students who stay in school and attend classes regularly, do their homework on time, and get good grades and pass their classes whould be good candidates for free tuition. |
| 10. | One of my friends, Diane, was a community college student until heshe got laid off from hisher job. | Diane is always a feminine name. The subjective case pronoun is and the possessive case adjective is . Subjective, objective, and possessive case pronouns must show gender agreement with third person singular nouns. |
| 11. | The doors of community colleges are always open to anyone who wants to attain an education like my classmates and Ime. | Like is a preposition and must be followed by an object. The objective case for first person is . |
| 12. | Each person has theirhis or her own opinion, and many people think that community colleges shouldn't charge tuition and fees. | Using their for the antecedent each person is fine in spoken English, but remember to make pronouns agree with nouns in formal written English. |
| 13. | If California residents have a good education, residentsthey will make our | Use the pronoun to avoid repetition. It's necessary in the second clause. Do not use a pronoun as a determiner before a proper noun (the name of the state, in this case). Zero article/determiner is correct before names--(...,they will make California strong). |
| 14. | These sentences all have indefinite pronoun errors: Every-bodyEverybody can go to school easily. In order to be successful, everyoneone has to work | Indefinite pronouns are not hyphenated and are written as one word. The only exception is no one, which would look like the word noon with an e on the end if it weren't two separate words. In the second sentence, there is no antecedent for the pronoun it. Therefore, an adverb phrase should be substituted for the prepositional phrase. Indefinite pronouns can have a plural meaning, but they are always singular in form (everything). Note this error in the third sentence as well as the incorrect rendering of the subject pronoun, nobody. Did you click on four words? |
| 15. | Being successful is a priority for every bodyeverybody no matter where youhe or she are livingis living. | Remember to write the indefinite pronouns as ONE WORD. Use third person singular pronouns to agree with these indefinite pronouns. The impersonal pronoun you is never correct with an indefinite pronoun. Informal spoken English allows . Did you click the verb to make it agree with he or she? If not, do so now. |
| 16. | EverybodyNobody in my company does not likelikes him. | When the meaning of the sentence is negative, begin with the negative indefinite pronoun nobody or no one. Note that the verb also has to change as the double negative would be illogical. As written by the student, the sentence is nonidiomatic and very awkward. |
| 17. | One of my co-workers was extremely competitive. He never listened to different opinions, so he'shis intelligence became useless. | Whose intelligence became useless? The possessive case is necessary here. |
| 18. | The children at the center did the entire project by theirselfthemselves. | Theirself or theirselves are NOT words in English. The intensive pronoun required here is . |
| 19. | I also learned from Minh how to set up the software and operate themit. | Software is a noncount noun and always singular. The object pronoun should be . |
| 20. | When we work in a group we can learn more from others about the things we don't know or are not capable of doing somethingourselves. | The intensive pronoun is necessary here. The meaning is that "We are not capable of doing these things . Remember that if you can leave out the pronoun, it's an intensive pronoun, not reflexive. Note two other alternatives. We can learn things that we are not capable of doing. We can learn things that we are are not capable of doing by ourselves. |