Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Read the sentence below carefully:

"Every one of the senior analysts who reviewed the complex financial statements maintained that _____ analysis was completely accurate."

Which pronoun correctly completes the sentence in strict accordance with standard formal rules of pronoun-antecedent agreement?

  1. hisAnswer
  2. B
    their
  3. C
    its
  4. D
    them

Answer

The possessive pronoun 'his' correctly completes the sentence by maintaining singular grammatical agreement with the antecedent 'Every one'.
The sentence requires a singular possessive pronoun because the grammatical antecedent is the singular indefinite expression 'Every one'. In formal written English assessed by JAMB, singular indefinite antecedents take singular possessive pronouns regardless of intervening plural modifiers.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the true subject/antecedent of the main clause.
The core antecedent is the indefinite pronoun phrase 'Every one', which is grammatically singular.
Intervening prepositional phrases like 'of the senior analysts' and relative clauses like 'who reviewed...' modify the head noun but do not change its singular grammatical number.
2
Determine the required grammatical case and number for the pronoun slot.
The slot modifies the noun 'analysis', requiring a singular possessive determiner.
A possessive pronoun is needed to indicate ownership of the noun 'analysis'.
3
Select the option that satisfies formal singular possessive agreement.
The word 'his' is the standard formal singular possessive pronoun.
Formal JAMB English requires singular pronouns ('his' or 'his or her') to agree with singular indefinite antecedents such as 'every one', 'each', or 'everyone'.

Key Concept

Indefinite Pronoun Concord with Intervening Prepositional Modifiers
Rate this question

Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

More questions from this topic