4.7 Inappropriate Shifts in Pronoun Person and Number

Holding a Point of View

Inappropriate shifts in pronoun person and number: The student will recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun person and number within and between sentences.

This skill has two halves. Person concerns whether a passage speaks as I/we, you, or he/she/they/one. Number concerns whether a referent stays singular or plural. Both errors are extremely common in ordinary writing, which is exactly why they are tested — they slip past writers who would never make a subject-verb error.

Part One: Person Shifts

The Three Persons

The Indefinite You

By far the most frequent shift. A passage establishes a third-person subject, then slides into you as a stand-in for "people in general":

✗ When students enter a laboratory course, you must complete a safety orientation first.

Students is third person; you is second. Two repairs:

✓ When students enter a laboratory course, they must complete a safety orientation first. ✓ When you enter a laboratory course, you must complete a safety orientation first.

Either is internally consistent. Which one is correct on the test depends on the surrounding passage: if the rest of the text is third person, use they. Because most academic passages are third person, converting the stray you into a third-person pronoun is usually the right repair.

This error is invisible in speech, where the indefinite you is completely normal. Recognizing it in writing requires deliberate attention.

The One Trap

One is a third-person pronoun, so following it with you is a shift:

✗ If one studies consistently, you will see steady improvement. ✓ If one studies consistently, one will see steady improvement. ✓ If one studies consistently, he or she will see steady improvement.

Repeated one sounds stilted in American English, so recasting is often the best option: Consistent study produces steady improvement.

The same applies to a person, an individual, someone, and anyone — all third person.

First-Person Intrusions

A formal third-person passage that suddenly produces we or I:

✗ The data indicate a downward trend in enrollment. We can see that the decline began in 2019. ✓ The data indicate a downward trend in enrollment, which began in 2019.

Part Two: Number Shifts

Generic Singular Nouns

A singular noun standing for a class must take singular pronouns:

✗ A candidate should submit their transcripts by March. — traditionally flagged as a number shift.

The test expects consistency. Three repairs, in descending order of usefulness:

1. Pluralize the antecedent. Cleanest and almost always available:

✓ Candidates should submit their transcripts by March.

2. Use his or her. Correct but clumsy when repeated:

✓ A candidate should submit his or her transcripts by March.

3. Recast to eliminate the pronoun.

✓ A candidate should submit transcripts by March.

On a multiple-choice test, look for the pluralized option first. It resolves the shift without introducing awkwardness, and it is very often the intended answer.

Indefinite Pronouns

These are singular despite feeling plural, and they govern both pronoun choice and verb agreement:

✗ Everyone submitted their forms before the deadline. ✓ Everyone submitted his or her forms before the deadline. ✓ All the applicants submitted their forms before the deadline.

For the context-dependent group, number follows the object of the of phrase:

Most of the budget was allocated. (singular) / Most of the funds were allocated. (plural)

Collective Nouns

Committee, team, faculty, jury, board, staff are singular in American usage when acting as a unit:

✓ The committee released its findings. ✗ The committee released their findings.

When members act individually, pluralize the noun rather than the pronoun: The committee members submitted their individual statements.

Shifts Between Sentences

The skill statement covers shifts "within and between sentences," so track referents across sentence boundaries:

✗ The district revised its transportation policy. They eliminated four bus routes.

District is singular; they is plural. Repair to It eliminated — or, if the passage means the board members, name them.

Working the Question Type

1. Find the antecedent — the noun the pronoun replaces.
2. Check person: does the pronoun match the antecedent's person?
3. Check number: singular antecedent, singular pronoun?
4. If a repair is needed, prefer the pluralized-antecedent option when the choices offer it.

The habit that catches nearly all of these: whenever you meet a pronoun in an underlined portion, look backward for its antecedent before evaluating any answer choice.