Page 38 - (DK) Help Your Kids with Language Arts
P. 38

36        GRAMMAR



        Number and gender                                                  SEE ALSO
                                                                           
                                                                            24–25  Plurals
        PRONOUNS AND DETERMINERS MUST AGREE WITH THE NOUNS                    32–33  Determiners
                                                                            34–35  Pronouns
        TO WHICH THEY RELATE.
                                                                           Verbs                        38–39  
                                                                           Verb agreement               52–53  
        In English, there are no personal pronouns or possessive determiners
        that can be used to refer to someone without identifying whether
        that person is male or female. This often results in mismatched
        combinations of singular nouns and plural pronouns or determiners.  • If a piece of text is likely to become
                                                                            clumsy with the repetition of his or
                                                                            her, try using certain nouns in the
                                                                            plural form to add variety.
          Matching numbers             Pronoun         Determiner
          Pronouns must agree in number   I            my                  GLO S S A RY
          (singular or plural) with the nouns
          they represent. Plural nouns or   you        your                Indefinite pronoun  A pronoun such
          pronouns must be followed by   he            his                 as everyone that refers to nobody or
                                                                           nothing specific.
          plural pronouns or determiners,   she        her
          and singular nouns or pronouns               its                 Number  The term used to identify a
                                                                           noun or pronoun as singular or plural.
          must be followed by singular   it
          pronouns or determiners.     we              our                 Personal pronoun  A pronoun that takes
                                                                           the place of a noun and represents
                                       you             your                people, places, or things.
                                       they            their               Possessive determiner  A word that is
                                                                           used before a noun to show ownership.















                                           Indefinite pronouns
                                           Indefinite pronouns such as
          • When using the word each, think   everyone and anything often   Singular     Plural
          about “each one,” as it makes    cause problems. Although they   everyone is   both are
          it easier to remember that each   appear to refer to more than one
          is always followed by a singular   person or thing, these pronouns   somebody is  all are
          pronoun or determiner.           are, in fact, singular words.    something is  many are
          • Some words, such as each and   One way of establishing whether   each is     most are
          all, are used both as determiners   a pronoun is singular or plural    nothing is  others are
          and as pronouns. Remember that   is to put the verb form are
          a determiner is always used in front   right after it. If the resulting   another is  few are
          of a noun, whereas a pronoun     combination sounds wrong,
          replaces a noun.                 then that pronoun is singular.
   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43