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Difficulty: MediumPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Read the sentence below:

'Following the announcement of the court recess, the jury dispersed to _____ respective quarters to review the evidence individually.'

Which of the following pronouns correctly completes the sentence?

  1. theirAnswer
  2. B
    its
  3. C
    it's
  4. D
    theirs

Answer

The pronoun 'their' correctly completes the sentence.
In standard formal English, collective nouns such as 'jury', 'committee', or 'family' take plural pronouns when the sentence emphasizes the individual members acting separately rather than as a single unified body. The verbs and modifiers 'dispersed', 'respective', and 'individually' confirm that the jury members are acting as individuals, making the plural possessive determiner 'their' the grammatically correct choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent in the sentence.
The antecedent is the collective noun 'jury'.
Determining the subject noun is essential for establishing pronoun agreement.
2
Analyze whether the collective noun operates as a single unit or as separate individuals.
The keywords 'dispersed', 'respective', and 'individually' indicate that the members are acting separately as individuals.
Collective nouns take plural pronouns when the individuals within the group act separately.
3
Select the appropriate possessive pronoun that matches the plural agreement requirement.
The plural possessive determiner 'their' is selected.
It grammatically agrees with the plural sense of the antecedent and properly modifies 'respective quarters'.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Collective Nouns
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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