What is pronoun-antecedent agreement and give an example of an error.

• A. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number and gender; for example, 'Each student must bring his or her book'.
• B. Pronouns do not need to agree.
• C. Antecedents must agree with pronouns in tense.
• D. Pronoun-antecedent agreement only applies to plural nouns.

Answer: (A)

Pronoun-antecedent agreement means the pronoun must match its antecedent in number and gender so the sentence clearly refers to the same person or thing. When you have a singular antecedent like every student or each student, the pronoun should be singular and reflect gender. The standard way to cover a gender-neutral singular antecedent is to use his or her, as in: Each student must bring his or her book. This keeps the pronoun tied to the single person and avoids implying only one gender. An error happens when a singular antecedent is paired with a plural pronoun, such as: The boy forgot their book. That mismatches number, creating confusion. The fix is to use his or her if the gender is unknown or one gender is intended, or his if male or her if female. For a plural antecedent, the pronoun should be plural too, for example The boys forgot their books.