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Question

Difficulty: HardPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

The following sentence contains an underlined portion.

Neither of the board members who attended the emergency session was prepared to submit their final report before the deadline.

Which choice is the grammatically correct replacement for the underlined portion?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    they're final report
  3. his or her final reportAnswer
  4. D
    the final report belonging to them

Answer

The correct choice is the option that replaces the underlined portion with 'his or her final report' to ensure pronoun-antecedent agreement.
The correct option replaces the underlined text with a singular possessive pronoun phrase that agrees in number with the singular antecedent 'Neither'. Since 'Neither' is singular, and the gender of the board members is not specified, 'his or her' is the grammatically correct choice. The singular verb 'was' in the sentence further confirms that the subject is singular.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the underlined pronoun.
The antecedent is the indefinite pronoun 'Neither', which is grammatically singular. The plural noun 'members' in the prepositional phrase 'of the board members' is not the antecedent.
The pronoun must agree in number with the actual subject/antecedent, not nouns in intervening prepositional phrases.
2
Determine the correct number and gender of the pronoun.
Since 'Neither' is singular and gender is unspecified, the singular possessive phrase 'his or her' is required.
Indefinite pronouns like 'neither', 'each', and 'everyone' are singular in standard written English.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that uses the singular possessive pronoun and is concise.
The phrase 'his or her final report' is correct and concise. The alternative 'the final report belonging to them' is wordy and contains a plural pronoun, and 'they're' is a contraction of 'they are'.
ACT English prioritizes grammatical correctness and conciseness, avoiding wordy or redundant constructions.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Singular Indefinite Pronouns
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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