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Difficulty: MediumPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Which possessive pronoun correctly completes the sentence below while maintaining proper pronoun-antecedent agreement in standard formal English?

Answer:Neither the chief magistrate nor the defense attorneys submitted 【their】 final briefs before the court adjourned.

Answer

their
When subjects are joined by correlative conjunctions such as 'neither... nor' or 'either... or', the pronoun must agree in person and number with the antecedent closest to it. In this sentence, 'defense attorneys' is plural and is the closer antecedent to the blank, so the plural possessive pronoun 'their' is grammatically required.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the sentence structure and identify the compound antecedent joined by a correlative conjunction.
The antecedents are 'the chief magistrate' (singular) and 'the defense attorneys' (plural), connected by 'neither... nor'.
When antecedents are connected by 'neither... nor', the proximity rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement applies.
2
Determine which antecedent is closer to the blank and select the matching pronoun.
The closer antecedent is 'the defense attorneys', which is plural; therefore, the plural possessive pronoun 'their' must be used.
The pronoun must agree in number with the antecedent nearer to it.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Correlative Conjunctions (Proximity Rule)
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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