Agreement

What’s wrong with this sentence?

Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun in their writing.

The pronoun their does not agree with its antecendent everyone. Their is plural, everyone is singular. Correction:

Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun in his or her writing.

Subjects must agree with their verbs. The same thing applies if the subject is a pronoun. Pronouns that end in –one are always considered single.

Singular Indefinite Pronouns: one, each, everything, somebody, someone, no one, everybody, anyone, much, nothing, something, neither, anything, nobody, everyone, other, either.

Some pronouns can be either singular or plural depending upon how they are used in a sentence.

Some of the catch is sold to restaurants.

Some of the ports are located near my home.


Pronouns that can be either singular or plural: some, any, all, more, and most.

To avoid biased language, we now get into constructions like this:

Everyone bring his or her own lunch.

To avoid this clumsy construction, make the whole sentence plural:

People should bring their own lunch.