ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by flu symptoms. So you might want to get

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that shot you've been putting off before you proceed.

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How would you correct the following sentence, if it needs correcting at all?

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Has it occurred to you that it might be better if one had stayed at home because of your flu symptoms?

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Pronouns require consistency. Yeah, they're definitely not the adventurous type.

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This means that the pronouns in a sentence should take the same form if they all refer

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to the same subject.

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So, since this sentence begins with "you," the correct answer has to have a "you" as

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well.

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The original sentence tries to slip a "one" in there on us instead, so we know that answer (A) is wrong.

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Choice (B) tries to pull the same trick, but we're on to it now, making (B) easy to eliminate.

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Come on, guys, you're going to have to do better than that.

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(C) and (D) obviously both value consistency, because they each use "you."

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To eliminate one of these choices, we're going to have to inspect their tenses.

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Careful now. We don't want another lawsuit. Since the sentence is in the past tense, the

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correct answer has to be in past tense as well.

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Consistency. Remember? Of the two remaining choices, choice (C) is the only one in the

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past tense, making it the correct answer.

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Not bad advice to stay home when you're not feeling too hot.

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It isn't a crime to use a sick day when you're actually sick.

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