and their antecedents

 The antecedent of a pronoun is the word to which the pronoun refers.  The antecedent comes before (ante-) the pronoun.  In these examples, the pronoun and its antecedent are bolded:  Mary earned her final paycheck this week.  Keith hit his first home run today.  The Fishers returned from their fishing trip.  The company advertises its products on radio.

 The pronoun must agree in both number and gender.  Singular antecedents take singular pronouns.  Plural antecedents take plural pronouns: they, them, their  Masculine antecedents take masculine pronouns: he, him, his  Feminine antecedents take feminine pronouns: she, her, hers  If the antecedent is neither masculine nor feminine, use a neuter pronoun: it, its

 each  either  neither  one  everyone  everybody  no one  nobody  anyone  anybody  someone  somebody

 Two or more singular antecedents separated by or or nor should be referred to by a singular pronoun:  Neither Sue nor Maria left her books on her desk.  If one of the antecedents separated by or or nor is plural and the other is singular, then the pronoun should match the antecedent closest to it:  Neither the students nor the teacher brought his lunch.  Neither the teacher nor the students brought their lunch.

 Two or more antecedents joined by and should be referred to by a plural pronoun:  Sue and Maria presented their reports.  Don’t be distracted by phrases after the antecedent:  Anybody in the classroom has the right to express their opinion. (Anybody = singular)

 What if the antecedent could be either masculine or feminine?  Old time usage allowed a writer to use the masculine form of the personal pronoun. Everyone has handed in his paper.  More culturally aware writers use both masculine and feminine. Everyone has handed in his or her paper.  You can (sometimes) avoid this awkwardness by rephrasing the sentence in the plural:  The students have handed in their papers.  But don’t make this common mistake:  The student handed in their paper.

1. Each of the women designed _____ own pattern. (her, their) 2. Neither of the men left ____ coat on the seat. (his, their) 3. One of the girls took ____ umbrella with ___. (her, their) 4. No one brought ____ camera to the party. (his/her, their)