ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by singular pronouns. Will they ever find

00:08

their plus ones? Watch HBO's new Sunday night series to see.

00:19

How would you correct the following underlined portion from the passage? Does it need correcting?

00:29

What we need here is a pronoun that refers in a general sense to these objectionable

00:33

kitty-baths. We can get rid of choice (A) because "one"

00:36

refers to one specific kitty-bath, not a whole bunch of them.

00:40

"One" is singular, and we're looking for something more on the plural tip.

00:45

One is also the loneliest number, but that's another story.

00:47

We can scratch out choice (B) for the same reason as (A); the pronoun "it" is singular

00:51

like "one." Hm, we wonder if "it" is the loneliest pronoun.

00:55

Maybe we should get "It" and "One" together sometime.

00:57

Choice (D) isn't grammatically incorrect. The noun "baths" is plural and allows

01:02

the sentence to refer to baths in general. However, the word "anti-bath" appears

01:06

earlier in the sentence. So using the word "baths" makes the sentence sound redundant.

01:11

This cat is stressed out enough without having to hear the word "baths" one more time.

01:15

The correct answer is (C).?"Them" is a plural pronoun that refers to bathing in general,

01:19

which accurately reflects the cat's hatred of any bath that doesn't follow the spit-and-paw

01:23

method. We have it on good authority that he's not alone in the cat world.

01:26

If there's one issue all cats can agree on, it may be the anti-bath plank of the feline party.

Full Transcript