Pronoun Ambiguity : pronoun before noun

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surekaharsh: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 10:10 am

by surekaharsh » Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:30 am

I would like to know whether we can use a pronoun to refer to a noun which is mentioned after the pronoun in a sentence. For Example :

Following its hugely successful campaign, the Club bought a number of new players.

Over here, 'its' is referring to "the club". Is it correct ? Is such usage allowed on the GMAT ?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:30 am

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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:27 am

I discussed this issue in my post here:

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by [email protected] » Tue Jul 23, 2013 1:20 pm

Hi surekaharsh,

Pronoun ambiguity is a subject that usually shows up once on the GMAT, so you do have to be clear on this issue if you want those points. Your example would be possible on Test Day because the word "its" is linked to "hugely successful campaign"; this can only refer to "the Club". Furthermore, the sentence uses proper modification style.

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Matt@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2630; Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:32 pmFollowed by: 119 members; Location: East Bay all the way; Thanked: 625 times; GMAT Score:780

by Matt@VeritasPrep » Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:13 pm

With very few exceptions, the GMAT considers a singular, nonhuman noun to be an "it". So "the club" is "it", "the audience" is "it", "the team" is "it", "New York" is "it", etc.

In spoken English, we usually treat collective nouns (singular nouns referring to groups that contain more than one person or thing, such as "the team" or "the club") as plural, but on the GMAT something is plural when it's plural and singular when it's singular. You only have one club, so the club is "it".

surekaharsh wrote:I would like to know whether we can use a pronoun to refer to a noun which is mentioned after the pronoun in a sentence. For Example :

Following its hugely successful campaign, the Club bought a number of new players.

Over here, 'its' is referring to "the club". Is it correct ? Is such usage allowed on the GMAT ?

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surekaharsh: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 10:10 am

by surekaharsh » Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:20 pm

Thanks a Lot guys.

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