Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

In the sentence below, a pronoun is missing. Which pronoun correctly completes the sentence to ensure proper pronoun-antecedent agreement?

Answer:The advisory council of urban architects presented 【its】 final master plan for the riverfront redevelopment to the city council last Tuesday.

Answer

The possessive pronoun 'its' is the correct answer because it agrees in number and gender with the singular, neuter collective noun 'council'.
The correct pronoun is 'its' because the antecedent 'advisory council' is a singular collective noun. A singular collective noun acting as a single unit requires a singular possessive pronoun.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the missing pronoun.
The antecedent is 'The advisory council'.
The pronoun must refer to the group that created and presented the master plan.
2
Determine the grammatical number (singular or plural) and gender of the antecedent.
The noun 'council' is a singular collective noun. The intervening prepositional phrase 'of urban architects' contains a plural noun, but it does not change the singular status of the main noun 'council'.
In standard formal English, collective nouns that act as a single unit are singular.
3
Choose the pronoun that matches the singular, neuter antecedent.
The singular possessive pronoun 'its' is selected.
To show possession for a singular, non-human antecedent, 'its' must be used.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Rate this question

Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

More questions from this topic