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5 votes
Read the following sentence.

If a person wants to succeed in life, you really have to work at it.

If the pronoun and antecedent in the sentence above are correct as is, write "correct" and explain the reason the pronoun choice is correct. If the sentence contains a pronoun error, rewrite the sentence to correct the error, then explain the reason the pronoun used was an error.

2 Answers

5 votes

Final answer:

The sentence contains a pronoun error; 'you' does not agree with the antecedent 'a person'. It should be corrected to either 'one' or 'they'. Pronouns must have clear antecedents and agree in number.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sentence "If a person wants to succeed in life, you really have to work at it." contains a pronoun error. The correct pronoun 'one' or 'they' should match with the generic noun 'a person'. Here's the corrected sentence: "If a person wants to succeed in life, one really has to work at it." or "If a person wants to succeed in life, they really have to work at it."

The error in the original sentence is due to a pronoun-antecedent agreement mistake. The pronoun 'you' does not match the antecedent 'a person'. A pronoun should refer to a clear and specific antecedent, and the use of 'one' or 'they' as a gender-neutral singular pronoun is in agreement with the singular noun 'person'. In English usage, 'one' or 'they' can be used as generic pronouns to refer to any person in a general sense, which is why they are correct in this context.

User Camford
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4.9k points
4 votes

Answer:

If a person wants to succeed in life, he or she really has to work at it.

Step-by-step explanation:

the pronoun "you" does not match up with "a person." The sentence starts out in third person and then transitions to second person, so the correction fixes this.

User DungGramer
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5.0k points