What is an antecedent in grammar?
An antecedent is the word that a pronoun replaces or refers to. Any time that you have a pronoun, you'll have an antecedent, even if it's not in the very same sentence. This makes sense; if we didn't have an antecedent for every pronoun, we'd be left with a lot of confusion.
What is the difference between singular and plural antecedents?
A pronoun and its antecedent must always agree in number. Basically, if an antecedent is singular, then the pronoun that replaces it or refers to it must also be singular. A plural antecedent must have a corresponding plural pronoun that replaces or refers to it. A pronoun and its antecedent must always agree in gender.
What is the antecedent of the dependent clause?
“The box” precedes the pronoun “it.” If a pronoun is used in a dependent clause, the antecedent will always be in the independent clause. Let’s take a look at another example.
What is an antecedent-pronoun agreement?
An antecedent is the noun that the pronoun is replacing. This means that the pronoun must "match" that noun in terms of number (i.e., singular or plural). This is called antecedent-pronoun agreement. The students came back to school yesterday. They all seemed excited to be there. The antecedent is the word students, which is a plural noun.
What is an example of an antecedent?
Examples of antecedent in a Sentence Noun “John” is the antecedent of the pronoun “him” in “Mary saw John and thanked him.” what are the antecedents of the American Revolutionary War? Adjective I'd like to follow up on an antecedent question from another reporter.
What is an indefinite pronoun antecedent?
Pronouns have to agree in number with the words they refer to (called their antecedents). That is, a pronoun must be singular when its antecedent is singular, and plural when its antecedent is plural.
What are the types of antecedents?
As with all other pronouns, an antecedent must be identified before a demonstrative pronoun is used....Antecedents with Demonstrable/Demonstrative Pronounsthis (singular)that (singular)these (plural)those (plural)
What is an antecedent in a sentence?
The word antecedent means “earlier.” In English grammar, the definition of antecedent is a phrase, word, or clause indicated by a pronoun. If there's a pronoun in a standalone sentence, you'll need to include an antecedent with it.
Which is a list of indefinite pronouns?
An indefinite pronoun refers to a non-specific person or thing. The most common ones are: all, any, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody, and someone.
How do you use indefinite pronouns?
We use indefinite pronouns to refer to people or things without saying exactly who or what they are. We use pronouns ending in -body or -one for people, and pronouns ending in -thing for things: Everybody enjoyed the concert. I opened the door but there was no one at home.
What are the three main types of antecedents?
Antecedents come in three different forms: events, objects, and people.
How do you find an antecedent?
When you see a pronoun, you should be able to understand its meaning by looking at the rest of the sentence. Look at the following sentence: The Smiths picked apples for hours, and they put them in large boxes. The antecedent for “they” is “the Smiths.” The antecedent for “them” is “apples.”
Does every sentence have a antecedent?
Each pronoun in a sentence is required to have its own clear antecedent. If you chose to use more than one pronoun in a sentence, you must make sure that each one of these pronouns has a clear antecedent to refer back to.
Can a pronoun be an antecedent?
Example #2 An antecedent is a noun or pronoun to which another noun or pronoun refers.
What is antecedent and consequent?
The first quantity of the ratio is called antecedent whereas the second quantity of the ratio is called consequent. For example- If there is a ratio of m:n, m is termed as antecedent or first term and n is termed as consequent or second term.
What is the difference between antecedent and precedent?
An antecedent, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is anything that existed before or preceded another. Precedent, on the other hand, is a previous occurrence or action that acts as a model or guidance.
What is pronoun antecedent and examples?
The noun or noun substitute that a pronoun refers to is called its antecedent. For example, in the sentence: Chelsey finished her presentation, "Chelsey" is the antecedent and "her" is the pronoun. Pronouns should agree in number, person, and gender with their antecedents.
What is the rule of pronoun antecedent?
The general rule for pronoun agreement is straightforward: A single antecedent requires a singular pronoun; a plural antecedent needs a plural pronoun.
What is the antecedent for anyone?
Basic Principle: A pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the text (its antecedent) and must agree in number — singular/plural — with the thing to which it refers. The indefinite pronouns anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one, and nobody are always singular.
How do you teach pronoun antecedent agreement?
Teach students to add "one" in their head to words like "each," "either," or "neither" to help them remember they are singular. Encourage students to focus on the meaning of the sentence. For example, the pronoun "some" can be either singular or plural depending on what it is describing.
What is an antecedent in grammar?
The word antecedent means “earlier.” In English grammar, the definition of antecedent is a phrase, word, or clause indicated by a pronoun. If there’s a pronoun in a standalone sentence, you’ll need to include an antecedent with it.
How do you identify an antecedent?
The easiest way to identify an antecedent is to first look for a pronoun. If the sentence has a pronoun in it, you know there’s an antecedent to be found somewhere. Once you spot the pronoun in a sentence, look at the rest of the sentence and use context clues to find it.
Antecedent examples
When a pronoun is involved, a missing antecedent stands out like a sore thumb. Here’s an example of a sentence with the antecedent omitted:
7 common pronoun-antecedent agreement rules
But if the indefinite pronoun is plural, then it would look more like this example:
What is an antecedent in a sentence?
An Explanation in Simple Terms. In English grammar, an antecedent is a subject that will be renamed by another word later in a sentence. Most often the word replacing the antecedent is a pronoun, though it can also be a noun or noun phrase.
What Is an Antecedent in Grammar?
The word antecedent refers to something that comes before, or precedes, something else. For example, especially in older or more formal English prose, people might refer to their ancestors or predecessors in a job as "my antecedents."
What happens when a pronoun takes its place and an antecedent is singular?
An antecedent and the word that replaces it must agree in number. If the antecedent is singular, then the pronoun that takes its place must also be singular.
What happens when John comes inside?
When John comes inside, the boy will dry off with his towel in his bathroom. (Here, the antecedent John is replaced with "the boy," in addition to being replaced with "his" later on.) When John comes inside, the wet boy will dry off with his towel in his bathroom.
What is an antecedent?
(Entry 1 of 2) 1 grammar : a substantive word, phrase, or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun that typically follows the substantive (such as John in "Mary saw Joh n and called to him") broadly : a word or phrase replaced by a substitute.
What is an antecedent in English?
English Language Learners Definition of antecedent. (Entry 1 of 2) grammar : a word or phrase that is represented by another word (such as a pronoun) formal : something that came before something else and may have influenced or caused it. formal : the people in a family who lived in past times.
What does "antecedent" mean in Latin?
Middle English, from Medieval Latin & Latin; Medieval Latin antecedent-, antecedens, from Latin, what precedes, from neuter of antecedent-, antecedens, present participle of antecedere to go before, from ante- + cedere to go
Who was the reporter who wrote the article about the Marvel antecedent?
In 1966, while Kirby was working at Marvel, a reporter named Nat Freedland penned an article about the company for New York’s antecedent, the Sunday magazine of the New York Herald-Tribune. — Abraham Riesman, Vulture, 18 Mar. 2021 YouTube personality Doug DeMuro brought out his 2005 Ford GT to race its antecedent.
What is an antecedent?
What are antecedents? An antecedent, sometimes called a pronoun antecedent, can be any noun. However, it is only called an antecedent once a pronoun is used. A pronoun cannot be used without an antecedent. In this way, pronouns and antecedents are invariably linked. An example will help clarify this concept.
When is the antecedent always in the independent clause?
If a pronoun is used in a dependent clause , the antecedent will always be in the independent clause.
What is an antecedent in grammar?
Define antecedent: An antecedent is a word to which another word, usually a pronoun, refers. There are a number of things that you need to keep in mind with antecedents in grammar. Here are a few things to remember, Antecedents and pronouns are invariably linked. Antecedents are sometimes called pronoun antecedents.
What does "antecedent agreement" mean?
Pronoun antecedent agreement definition: Without exception, antecedents and pronouns must agree. This means that if a sentence uses a singular antecedent, it must also use a singular pronoun.
Why is the hurdle an antecedent?
However, “the hurdle” is the antecedent because that noun is in the independent clause. The antecedent will always be placed in the independent clause, regardless of the placement of a dependent clause. In English, an antecedent must be used to identify a noun before a pronoun is introduced. Once the antecedent has been used initially, it is ...
Why are some antecedents difficult?
Some antecedents can be difficult because they seem like they are plural when in fact they are singular.
Do you need to identify an antecedent before using a personal pronoun?
As with all other pronouns, an antecedent must be identified before a personal pronoun is used.
What Is an Antecedent?
An antecedent literally means to exist or come before something else or to precede an event. This word originates either from the Old French antecedent or from the Latin antecedentem, both meaning to go before. In grammar, the term antecedent refers specifically to the noun to which a pronoun refers.
What does "antecedent" mean in Latin?
Antecedent comes from the Latin antecedent and it means to come before or to precede. In grammar, it specifically refers to the noun that comes before a pronoun and to which the pronoun refers.
What is an indefinite pronoun?
Indefinite pronouns are a category of pronouns that do not refer to any one specific noun, or the noun is of unknown quantities, hence why it is called indefinite as they are undefined. Some examples of indefinite pronouns are as follows:
Why did Dante run back home?
For example: Dante just ran back home, because he forgot his baseball glove.
What is an antecedent in English?
In English grammar, an antecedent is the noun or noun phrase that a pronoun refers to. Also known as a referent .
How to recognize a relative clause?
"Three features of the relative pronoun will help you recognize the relative clause: (1) The relative pronoun renames the headword of the noun phrase in which it appears . . ..
Do pronouns always agree with their antecedent?
A pronoun must always agree with its antecedent. If an antecedent is singular, as it is in the sentence above, the pronoun must be singular. If the antecedent is plural, as it is in the sentence below, the pronoun must also be plural. The leaves turned yellow, but they did not fall.".
