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Question

Difficulty: HardPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Neither of the female wildlife biologists who tracked the wolf pack in Wyoming was willing to share their raw telemetry data with the state agency.

Which option is the most grammatically correct replacement for the underlined word?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. herAnswer
  3. C
    they're
  4. D
    them

Answer

The correct option is 'her' because the singular indefinite pronoun 'Neither' acts as the singular antecedent, requiring the singular feminine possessive pronoun 'her' for grammatical agreement.
The correct option is 'her' because the antecedent is the singular indefinite pronoun 'Neither.' Although the intervening prepositional phrase contains the plural noun 'biologists,' the pronoun must agree with the singular subject 'Neither.' Since the sentence specifies that the biologists are female, the singular feminine possessive pronoun 'her' is the grammatically correct choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the possessive pronoun.
The antecedent is the indefinite pronoun 'Neither,' not the plural noun 'biologists' in the intervening prepositional phrase.
The head of the subject phrase determines the number of the pronoun.
2
Determine the grammatical number and gender of the antecedent.
'Neither' is grammatically singular. The prepositional phrase 'of the female wildlife biologists' indicates that the individuals are female.
This establishes that a singular feminine possessive pronoun is required.
3
Select the pronoun that matches these grammatical properties.
The singular feminine possessive pronoun is 'her.'
It correctly agrees with 'Neither' in both number and gender.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Singular Indefinite Pronouns
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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