Sentence Agreement - Possessive Pronouns

Sentence Agreement
Possessive Pronouns	Framed \| Unframed

Review

Dog Blog

I have to tell you about the beach in Carmel. This is the first place I go in the morning to watch the sunrise. Yes, it is early, but it is just amazing. There I’ll find some friends and we run and play together all in perfect harmony. We even can run off leash as Carmel Beach is one of the only pet friendly beaches on the Central Coast that allows me to run free. This mile long beach is just beautiful. White endless sand for me to run in and sometimes I even run in the water (I’m a Collie and don’t mind getting wet). A lot of my friends jump in the water and fetch balls. This could go on all day, yet a dog has to rest.

Carmel Beach, California "dog heaven"

Possessive Pronouns

SUBJECT PRONOUN	POSSESSIVE	POSSESSIVE SUBJECT PRONOUN
We have a dog	Our dog is over here.	Ours is over here. (our dog)
Lea has a chihuahua.	Her chihuahua is over there.	Hers is over there. (her chihuahua)
Sammy has a golden retriever.	His golden retriever is over there.	His is over there. (his golden retriever)
My sisters are raising a poodle.	Their poodle is over there.	Theirs is over there. (their poodle)
I have a dachshund.	My dachshund is over there.	Mine is over there. (my dachshund)
The dog has a bed.	Its/her/his bed is over there.	Its/Hers/His is over there. (its bed)

More Info - Pronouns

Dog owner scolding barking dog.

SINGULAR QUANTIFIER (agrees w/ quantifier)	PLURAL QUANTIFIERS (agrees w/ phrase)
Every dog owner has his dog leash.	All of the owners bring water for their (own) dogs.
Each dog has his collar on.	Some of us bring our lunches with us.
One of the dogs lost her collar.	Half of you let your dogs bark.
Each of the dogs wore his identification tags.	Ten percent the owners play ball with their dogs.
*Everyone of the owners has his/her clean-up bag ready.	None of the owners leave their trash on the beach..
*None of the dogs comes without its/her/his owner.	A number of owners surf with their dogs.

More Info - Pronoun Agreement with Quantifier Phrases

*Variations

STANDARD USAGE	INFORMAL "Gender Neutral"
Everyone has his dog on a leash. (Masculine pronoun may refer to a male and/or a female.)	Everyone has their dogs on leashes. (While the plural pronoun does not agree with "one", it may refer to both males and females.)
Everyone has her dog on a leash. (Feminine pronoun refers only to a female.)
Everyone has one's dog on a leash. (formal) (Possessive pronoun refers to a male or a female.)
None of the dogs wears his/her/its leash on the beach. (Note singular verb.)	None of the dogs wear their leashes on the beach. (Note plural verb.)

More Info - "Gender Neutral" Agreement

Practice

Select the option that is more commonly used in standard / formal English.
Then, check your answers

#	SENTENCE	YOUR RESPONSE
1.	In the beginning, everyone has problems learning how to setup an e-mail account.
2.	Ninety percent of the new users don't know how to set up internet connections.
3	Some of the users write about frustration.
4.	A number of users prefer that Internet service providers offer user-friendly assistance.
5.	In a browser, the toolbar and buttons need to be more intuitive (easy to guess what they do.)
6.	The buttons on a toolbar should have names and icons indicating functions.
7.	Everybody wants online service to be dependable and fast.
8.	Each woman needs to find best options.
9.	Every student I spoke to had problems with login to the course.
10.	One should always be careful about entering birthdate online.
11.	Those viruses are the ones, I spoke about. ability to wipe out your computer is stunning.
12.	Every one of us wishes that using computer could be easier.
13.	Your new computer is the same as , but larger.
14.	I have a digital manual that goes with computer.
15.	Apple and Microsoft supports own browser.
16.	Apple and Microsoft support own browser.
17.	A woman called support technicians saying she had lost "hard disk".
18.	Later, she realized that she had changed name from "hard disk" to "Lucy".
19.	Every problem has solution.
20.	A person should always keep temper under control.

Go to Grammar-Quizzes | Previous | Also see: Possessive Nouns | Gender Neutral Pronoun Use

Julie Sevastopoulos - College of San Mateo - San Mateo, CA 94402 USA