Pronoun agreement — Sentence Correction Aptitude Question
Pronoun agreement: Choose the correct sentence: Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Sentence Correction
- Section: Verbal Ability
- Difficulty: Hard
- Time target: 70 seconds
Question
Choose the correct sentence:
Options
- Everyone must bring their own pen.
- Everyone must bring his or her own pen.
- Everyone must bring they own pen.
- Everyone must bring theirs own pen.
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. Everyone must bring his or her own pen.
Worked solution
- Everyone is singular, so a strictly formal sentence takes a singular pronoun.
- 'his or her' agrees in number.
- (Singular 'their' is widely accepted in modern usage, but examinations test the formal rule.)
Answer: Everyone must bring his or her own pen.
The idea
Indefinite pronouns — everyone, somebody, nobody, each — are singular for agreement. Exam papers still expect the formal singular pronoun.
Shortcut. 'They own' and 'theirs own' are ungrammatical in any register, so the real choice is 'their' against 'his or her'. Everyone takes a singular verb ('everyone is'), and the formal rule tested here keeps the pronoun singular too.
Common trap. "Everyone must bring their own pen." — singular 'their' is normal in modern usage, so it sounds right, but placement papers still test the formal singular 'his or her'.