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Difficulty: MediumPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

The design committee faced a major setback when the municipal budget was suddenly reduced. Neither the project managers nor the lead architect was willing to change their design plans for the civic center, leaving the city council with no clear path forward.

Which choice best replaces the underlined portion of the sentence to ensure correct grammatical construction?

  1. A
    their
  2. his or herAnswer
  3. C
    him or her
  4. D
    they're

Answer

The correct answer is the phrase 'his or her' because it is a singular possessive pronoun that correctly agrees with the singular antecedent 'lead architect' and modifies the noun phrase 'design plans'.
The correct option is the phrase 'his or her' because the sentence features a compound subject joined by 'neither... nor...'. Under standard grammatical rules, the pronoun must agree in number with the closer antecedent, which is the singular noun 'lead architect'. Since the pronoun modifies the noun phrase 'design plans', it must be in the possessive case. Therefore, 'his or her' is grammatically correct and agrees in both number and case.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the pronoun.
The antecedent is the compound subject 'Neither the project managers nor the lead architect'.
Determining the subject that the pronoun replaces or refers to is the first step in ensuring agreement.
2
Apply the proximity rule for compound subjects joined by 'neither... nor...'.
Since 'lead architect' is singular and is the closer subject to the pronoun, the pronoun must be singular.
When compound subjects are joined by 'or' or 'nor', the pronoun agrees in number with the closer antecedent.
3
Determine the correct pronoun case.
The pronoun modifies the noun 'design plans', meaning it must be in the possessive case ('his or her').
Using the correct grammatical case ensures the pronoun functions properly as a modifier in the sentence.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Compound Antecedents
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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