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Question

Difficulty: EasyPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

The new line of organic cosmetic products has received praise because of their natural ingredients.

Which option correctly replaces the underlined pronoun in the sentence?

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

Answer

The correct answer is the singular possessive pronoun 'its' because it correctly agrees with the singular antecedent 'line'.
The correct answer is 'its'. The noun phrase 'The new line of organic cosmetic products' has the singular noun 'line' as its head. The intervening prepositional phrase 'of organic cosmetic products' contains a plural noun, but the pronoun must agree with the main singular noun 'line'. Therefore, the singular possessive pronoun 'its' is required to show possession of the natural ingredients.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the pronoun and its antecedent in the sentence.
The underlined pronoun is 'their' and its antecedent is the singular noun 'line'.
Pronouns must agree in number with their antecedents.
2
Determine the correct grammatical form of the pronoun.
The possessive pronoun must be singular, which is 'its'.
'Line' is a singular noun, so the plural pronoun 'their' is incorrect.
3
Eliminate the grammatically incorrect options.
NO CHANGE is incorrect because it retains 'their'; 'it's' is incorrect because it is a contraction of 'it is'; 'they're' is incorrect because it is a contraction of 'they are'.
Only 'its' is a singular possessive pronoun that correctly completes the sentence.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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