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Difficulty: MediumPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Consider the following sentence from an official report: "During the annual summit, neither the chief executive officer nor the regional branch managers succeeded in presenting _______ strategy for the upcoming fiscal quarter within the allotted time." Which pronoun correctly completes the sentence to maintain proper pronoun-antecedent agreement in standard formal English?

  1. theirAnswer
  2. B
    his
  3. C
    its
  4. D
    his or her

Answer

The correct pronoun is 'their', which agrees in number with the nearer plural antecedent 'the regional branch managers'.
In standard formal English grammar, when two subjects are connected by 'neither... nor', any following pronoun must agree in person and number with the closer antecedent. In this sentence, the antecedent closest to the blank is 'the regional branch managers' (plural). Therefore, the plural possessive pronoun 'their' is required.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the antecedent structure of the sentence.
The compound antecedent consists of a singular subject ('the chief executive officer') and a plural subject ('the regional branch managers') joined by the correlative conjunction 'neither... nor'.
Identifying the conjunction and subject numbers is necessary to determine the applicable agreement rule.
2
Apply the rule of proximity for pronoun-antecedent agreement.
When antecedents are joined by 'neither... nor', the pronoun must agree with the antecedent closest to it in position.
The noun phrase immediately preceding the pronoun gap is 'the regional branch managers', which is plural.
3
Select the pronoun matching the nearer antecedent.
The possessive pronoun 'their' correctly matches the plural antecedent.
Plural antecedents require plural pronouns in standard formal English.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Correlative Conjunctions
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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