Pronouns

• Match pronouns with their antecedents in number, including indefinite pronouns (each, everyone, nobody) and collective nouns (team, company)
• Identify and fix ambiguous or vague references (a pronoun that could point to two nouns, or a this/it/which with no clear referent) and keep person consistent (one/you)
• Write possessives correctly: singular (student's), plural (students'), irregular plural (children's), -y words (company's, companies'), and possessive pronouns with no apostrophe (its, whose, their), including its/it's, their/they're, and whose/who's
• Finish on one ACT-hard question and say what made it hard

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number. With a clearly singular antecedent, a singular pronoun is safest: 'Each student must bring *his or her* textbook.' On the ACT, 'each', 'every', 'everyone', 'anybody', 'neither' and 'either' are singular, so 'Each of the students brought their books' is an agreement error there and the fix is 'his or her books' or a plural subject ('The students brought their books'). The ACT does not accept singular 'their' with these words, even though everyday English does, so pick the choice that matches the antecedent's number. Collective nouns work the same way: 'team', 'committee', 'company' and 'class' are singular on the ACT and take 'its' ('The team lost its lead', never 'their lead'). Do not tell a student that the ACT accepts 'their' for a collective noun, and do not call a sentence correct on the grounds of 'modern usage' when an answer choice fixes the number mismatch. When answer choices force a choice, match the number of the antecedent first. On the ACT, if a pronoun is underlined, check whether it clearly refers to one specific noun. Ambiguous or vague reference and the sound-alike traps are the two most-tested pronoun errors. Ambiguous reference it occurs when a pronoun could refer to two or more nouns, or to no specific noun at all ('When John met Tom, *he* smiled' or a 'this' with no clear referent). The sound-alike traps are its (possessive) vs. it's (it is), their vs. they're vs. there, and whose vs. who's. Pronoun case (who vs. whom, I vs. me) is tested only rarely, so learn it but do not over-invest: as a quick check, if you can substitute 'he/she,' use 'who'; if you can substitute 'him/her,' use 'whom.' Case also matters in compound phrases. After a preposition such as 'between,' 'for,' or 'with,' use the object form ('between you and me,' 'for Maya and me'); in other compounds, drop the other person to test it ('The coach thanked Maya and me' is right because you would say 'thanked me'). Possessives: a singular noun takes apostrophe s (one student's locker); a plural that ends in s takes only an apostrophe (the students' lockers); an irregular plural takes apostrophe s (the children's books, the women's team). For words ending in -y, the plural is -ies (two companies), the singular possessive is -y's (the company's profits), and the plural possessive is -ies' (both companies' profits). A plain plural never takes an apostrophe ('three students,' not 'three student's'), and possessive pronouns never do either: its, whose, theirs, yours, hers, ours. The ACT-hard version: the choices differ only in company's, companies, and companies', so decide from the sentence whether there is one owner or several, and whether the word owns anything at all. For a singular indefinite pronoun (everyone, each, anybody) the act's answer is 'his or her' or a rewrite in the plural ('Students should bring their lunches'); 'his' alone is not the keyed answer, and neither is 'their' with a singular subject. Keep person consistent: a passage that uses 'one' should not switch to 'you' ('One should check one's work,' not 'your work'), and a passage in 'we' should not drift into 'they'.

• If an underlined pronoun appears, immediately find the antecedent. If you can't find exactly one, there's a problem.
• Watch for shifts in person: a passage that uses 'one' should not suddenly switch to 'you.'
• The ACT often tests possessive pronouns vs. contractions: its vs. it's, their vs. they're, whose vs. who's.