Mystery Lesson . . . Lesson revealed and explained . . .

[Anja]

One word that I see being misused often is gist.

Did you get the gist of the message?

It means “central theme, heart, essence, the main point.”


But it’s often misspelled as gest or jest.


Jest means “something done for amusement, as a joke, riddle, prank.”

Something may be said “in jest,” meaning “in a joking manner.”

Gest means nothing. There is no such word.


On to today’s lesson.


Can you detect the errors in these sentences?

I’ll not do the “lesson proper” until I get some feedback. (If you're all correct, maybe I won’t need to cover this.)


If someone is going to another country, it’s important that they get a passport.

Do we all have a passport?

Has everybody got their passport?

The mission team has chosen Janice to be their leader.

Probably nobody has forgotten the first time they travelled overseas.

Everyone should spend some of their time travelling for pleasure.

[pheeweed]

I’ll not do the “lesson proper” until I get some feedback. (If you're all correct, maybe I won’t need to cover this.)

I'm stumped on this one, unless feedback is plural.

If someone is going to another country, it’s important that they get a passport.

Do we all have a passport?

Has everybody got their passport?

The mission team has chosen Janice to be their leader.

Probably nobody has forgotten the first time they travelled overseas.

Everyone should spend some of their time travelling for pleasure.

The rest are using a singular subject and a plural object (is object the right word? I've forgotten so much grammar) or vice versa. But I thought it had become common practice to use "they" instead of "he or she" or "he/she" or "s/he," since they all are so awkward.

Phee

[Shann]

Can you detect the errors in these sentences?

I’ll not do the “lesson proper” until I get some feedback. (If you're all correct, maybe I won’t need to cover this.)


If someone is going to another country, it’s important that they get a passport.

Do we all have a passport?

Has everybody got their passport?

The mission team has chosen Janice to be their leader.

Probably nobody has forgotten the first time they travelled overseas.

Everyone should spend some of their time travelling for pleasure.

I will take a stab at how I would say some of these sentences to avoid using he/she.


Does everyone have a passport? or even better-

Have you all received your passport?

The mission team selected Janice to be the leader.

Does anyone remember traveling overseas for the first time?

One should devote some time to travel just for the pleasure of it.
(Okay the last one was awkward)

[Anja]

Phee is very "close" in her diagnosis of the problem.

Shann, you "corrected" the last three satisfactorily, but didn't really address the issue. The first ones about the passport, sorry.

Try again, okay?

Is anybody else out there? Between writing for the challenge and waiting for hinting, add a comment or two here.

[Shann]

I think the main problem was not matching the tenses up properly, but I also believe the generalizations of everyone and we don't work well in something meant for anyone to read.
Getting the singular subject with the singular predicate or something fancy like that that means match up the different part of sentences not in tenses oops but in plural and singular. I had tenses on the fingers, but my brain was thinking singular vs. plural. No wonder I felt like I needed to correct the examples instead of trying to explain them. It was a too tired brain day. Sorry about that.

[pheeweed]

I asked my English teacher daughter. The word is pronoun. I'm so embarassed.

So they use singular pronouns when they should be plural or the other way around.

Phee

[Anja]

I asked my English teacher daughter. The word is pronoun. I'm so embarassed.

So they use singular pronouns when they should be plural or the other way around.

Phee

You got it! (Or rather your daughter did!)

Try correcting them now.

It's called Agreement of Pronoun and Antecedent.

The lesson will come as soon after I get my challenge entry done, if I do one, and after there's a bit more feedback here.

[pheeweed]

I’ll not do the “lesson proper” until I get some feedback. (If you're all correct, maybe I won’t need to cover this.)

Still clueless on the above.

If someone is going to another country, it’s important that he get a passport.

Do we all have passports?

Has everybody got your passport?

The mission team has chosen Janice to be its leader.

Probably nobody has forgotten the first time she travelled overseas.

Everyone should spend some of his or her time travelling for pleasure.

[Anja]

I’ll not do the “lesson proper” until I get some feedback. (If you're all correct, maybe I won’t need to cover this.)

Still clueless on the above.

There's nothing to correct here, Phee. (I hope.) It is simply ME giving more directions . . . talking on and on . . . I guess when I shouldn't be.

The questions to be corrected were the ones in italics. If you stick around, you'll get used to my insane MO.

You did an admirable job of correcting them.

As I said, I'll do the lesson when I'm done my challenge entry, but hang around, everyone. Add on, if you'd like. (I'd like it!)

[Anja]

Here's the lesson . . .


Agreement of Pronoun and Antecedent


Always use SINGULAR PRONOUNS to refer to SINGULAR ANTECEDENTS and PLURAL PRONOUNS with PLURAL ANTECEDENTS.

Singular Pronouns as Antecedents

These pronouns are ALL singular:

each
either
neither
anyone
anybody
everyone
everybody
someone
somebody
no one (please note this word is NOT written noone or no-one)
nobody

The pronouns referring to them should be singular.

Each of the riders took his own horse.
Neither girl passed her test.
Does everyone have his ticket?

Be aware that the last sentence, his is used even though the antecedent may be male or female. Be aware of objections to this practice, but the English language has no singular form that refers to either gender.

Because it is awkward to say his and hers, his or her, he or she, and him and her, feel free to use masculine pronouns in a universal sense. It is better, though, to avoid the problem by rephrasing the sentence.

Does everyone have a ticket?
We have our tickets.


Collective Nouns as Antecedents

There are MANY lists of collective nouns you can Google.

Have a look at these at . . .

Collective Nouns

Terms for Collections

Be aware that even though there are more than one lion in a pride, there is still only ONE PRIDE. Pride is singular and will require a singular pronoun.

The pride took down its prey and brought the kill back to its cubs.


However, Collective nouns may be singular OR plural and will require a singular or plural pronouns depending on the sentence.


The mission team has elected Janice to be its leader.

The mission team worked together on their respective tasks.

[pheeweed]

The mission team worked together on their respective tasks[/i].[/b]

Shouldn't this be "the mission team members..." or is it implied?

Phee