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dangerous Possesive nouns

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dangerous Possesive nouns

by gmattarget700 » Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:49 pm
The players' helmets need to be repainted so that they will be ready to be used at practice on Sunday.

Rule is: Subject and Object pronoun may not refer back to possessive nouns.
With above rule, "they" can not refer back to "players' " and so it should be wrong. but Manhattan book says, above sentence is correct.

To me, correct sentence should be:
The players' helmets need to be repainted so that helmets will be ready to be used at practice on Sunday.

What am I missing? Are we saying that "they" is not referring to "players'" but "helmets" and thats why its correct?
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by gmatmachoman » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:49 pm
gmattarget700 wrote:The players' helmets need to be repainted so that they will be ready to be used at practice on Sunday.

Rule is: Subject and Object pronoun may not refer back to possessive nouns.
With above rule, "they" can not refer back to "players' " and so it should be wrong. but Manhattan book says, above sentence is correct.

To me, correct sentence should be:
The players' helmets need to be repainted so that helmets will be ready to be used at practice on Sunday.

What am I missing? Are we saying that "they" is not referring to "players'" but "helmets" and thats why its correct?
Bro,
Here what do u think the subject is??

Subject: Helmets..(Plural)---(What needs to be repainted?? Player or player's helmets??)
so "they" properly takes care of that....
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by gmattarget700 » Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:18 pm
i understand that its helmet thats to be painted but lets take some other example:

The players' helmets need to be repaired so that they would feel comfortable on the field.

Here, "they" is not referring to "helmets"...


Nancy's cat was so tired that she felt embarrassed.
Nancy's cat was very tired and she slept on the floor.


how would you know "she" refers to which subject, Nancy or cat?
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by gmattarget700 » Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:12 pm
I was revisiting the above example I gave and realized that all 3 examples may need correction, as pronoun is not referring back to noun clearly.

1. The players' helmets need to be repaired so that they would feel comfortable on the field.
This should be: The players' helmets need to be repaired so that players would feel comfortable on the field.

2. Nancy's cat was so tired that she felt embarrassed.

This should be: Nancy's cat was so tired that Nancy felt embarrassed.


3. Nancy's cat was very tired and she slept on the floor.
This should be: Nancy's cat was very tired and the cat slept on the floor.


any comments?? anyone?

Thanks
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Sun Jan 24, 2010 5:48 pm
The sentence with the players' helmets is correct because the author means that the helmets will feel comfortable, not the players themselves. Its similar to when you talk about how a shoe feels. You say the shoe feels comfortable, you mean that the actual shoe feels comfortable, not that you feel comfortable in the shoe. Hope that helps.
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by mmslf75 » Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:39 pm
@gmattarget

U r worrying too much about possessive pronoun to possessive noun referrent
It has been concurred by experts as well that it's just a concept and GMAT may not test it ;-)

look at these two sentences

Joe's room is so dirty that his mother calls him a pig


Here, HIM should be JOE
Why ?
as possessive pronoun can only refer to a possessive noun ,here, "Joe's room"
Since HIS will not be correct here, we use JOE

Joe's room is so dirty that his mother calls Joe a pig


The professor was late for the class as his car broke down
Here, though HIS is a possessive pronoun it can refer unambigously to PROFESSOR (noun)
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