10 Grammar Rules Every Teacher Should Know

Rule #6 While You’re At It, Get Your Nouns and Pronouns to Agree, Too!
If you thought it was tough to get verbs and subjects to match, you’ll really have fun getting nouns to stay on the same wavelength. The rules are the same as those for verbs. That is, singular gets singular and plural gets plural. Compound nouns that use “and” are always plural; those with “or/nor” are singular if each noun is singular, plural if at least one is plural. This is old hat to you, right? So:

plural
He entertained his friends from work in the study while she ignored them in the kitchen.

singular singular

The Board of Directors and the CEO met yesterday. We think they will announce a stock split today.

plural singular

The neighbors or a burglar are sneaking around outside. Should we attack them?

singular & singular (leads to two separate pronouns)

She submitted a proposal to John for a new office. Today, she learned that he approved it.

Pronoun problems often happen for the same reason that other “agreement” problems do—the sentence is complex. Yet, pronouns suffer from a modern problem, too. (Latin isn’t to blame!) When we became aware of gender issues in the 1970s, using “he” to describe anyone we didn’t specify became insensitive (e.g., “I saw someone moving around in the back of the store. He was probably looking for something.” POLITICALLY INCORRECT) To avoid using “he” we often cheat and use “they” thinking that we are being neutral. This is a nice theory, but it’s bad grammar. As obnoxious as it is, we must use “he or she” to describe this person. So:

A student who has first lunch eats first. His or her fourth period comes afterwards.

Although it probably seems illogical, the terms “each,” “everyone” and “every” along with “any” and “someone” should be singular, while “all” is plural. Thus:

Everyone who has first lunch eats first. His or her fourth period comes afterwards. (CORRECT!)

All students who have first lunch eat first. Their fourth period comes afterwards. (CORRECT!)

Each student must turn in a notebook. If they don’t, they will fail. (WRONG!)

Each student must turn in a notebook. If he or she does not, he or she will fail. (CORRECT!)

Someone’s been sitting in my chair, and they’d better watch out! (WRONG!)

Someone’s been sitting in my chair, and he or she had better watch out! (CORRECT!)

Every student was assigned a mentor. It is his or her job to set up meetings. (CORRECT!)

Every student was assigned a mentor. It is their job to set up meetings. (WRONG!)

To avoid mistakes, train yourself to use “all” when you are thinking about a group and “every” “any” or “each” when you are thinking about individuals (every one, any one and each one). Then the verbs and pronouns will coincide with your mental picture, and the correct grammar will follow.