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Difficulty: EasyPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Fill in the blank with the correct possessive pronoun that agrees with its antecedent in the sentence below.

Answer:The city council decided to revise 【its】 municipal budget during the executive session.

Answer

The correct pronoun is 'its'.
The singular possessive pronoun 'its' correctly agrees with the collective noun antecedent 'city council', which functions as a single unified unit in this context.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent in the sentence.
The antecedent is the noun phrase 'The city council'.
The missing word is a possessive pronoun referring back to the body making the decision.
2
Determine the grammatical number and person of the antecedent.
'City council' is a singular collective noun functioning as a single acting entity.
When a collective noun acts as a single unified body, it takes a singular neuter pronoun.
3
Select the possessive pronoun that matches the antecedent in number and gender.
The third-person singular neuter possessive pronoun is 'its'.
Proper pronoun-antecedent agreement requires a singular pronoun ('its') to agree with the singular collective antecedent ('city council').

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Collective Nouns
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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