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Difficulty: MediumPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

In the passage below, which option correctly replaces the underlined pronoun to ensure proper pronoun-antecedent agreement?

Although the municipal transit authority expected a major delay due to road construction, the fleet of electric delivery vehicles completed their scheduled routes through the downtown district on time.

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. itsAnswer
  3. C
    it's
  4. D
    its'

Answer

The correct option is 'its' because it is the singular possessive pronoun that matches the singular collective noun antecedent 'fleet.'
The correct option is 'its' because the pronoun refers to 'the fleet,' which is a singular collective noun. A singular neuter noun requires the singular possessive pronoun 'its' to achieve grammatical agreement.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the pronoun to be tested and trace back to find its logical antecedent.
The underlined pronoun is 'their,' and it refers back to 'the fleet of electric delivery vehicles.'
To ensure correct agreement, we must find the noun that the pronoun represents.
2
Determine the grammatical number of the antecedent, ignoring any intervening prepositional phrases.
The core noun is the collective noun 'fleet,' which is singular. The plural noun 'vehicles' is part of the prepositional phrase 'of electric delivery vehicles' and does not affect the number of the antecedent.
Pronouns must agree in number with the head noun of the noun phrase, not with objects of prepositions.
3
Select the correct possessive pronoun that is singular and neuter to match 'fleet.'
The singular possessive pronoun is 'its.'
This establishes grammatical agreement without introducing spelling or contraction errors.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Collective Nouns
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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