Pronouns VII

A pronoun is a word used to stand for (or take the place of) a noun.
A word can refer to an earlier noun or pronoun in the sentence.
Example:
The pronoun his refers back to President Lincoln . President Lincoln is
the ANTECEDENT for the pronoun his .
An antecedent is a word for which a pronoun stands. (ante = "before")
The pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number.
Rule: A singular pronoun must replace a singular noun; a plural pronoun must
replace plural noun.
Here are nine pronoun-antecedent agreement rules. These rules are related to the
rules found in subject-verb agreement.
1. A phrase or clause between the subject and verb does not change the
number of the antecedent.

2. Indefinite pronouns as antecedents

Singular indefinite pronoun antecedents take singular pronoun referents.

Plural indefinite pronoun antecedents require plural referents.
PLURAL: several, few, both, many

Some indefinite pronouns that are modified by a prepositional phrase may be

either singular or plural.
EITHER SINGULAR OR PLURAL: some, any, none, all, most
Sugar is uncountable therefore, the sentence has a singular referent pronoun.

Jewelry is uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular referent pronoun.

Marbles are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun.
Jewels are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun.
2. Compound subjects joined by and always take a plural referent.

3.

4. 4. With compound subjects joined by or/nor, the referent pronoun agrees

with the antecedent closer to the pronoun.
5. Collective Nouns (group, jury, crowd, team, etc.) may be singular or
plural, depending on meaning.
6. Titles of single entities. (books, organizations, countries, etc.) take a
singular referent.
7. Plural form subjects with a singular meaning take a singular referent. (news,
measles, mumps, physics, etc.
8. Every or Many a before a noun or a series of nouns requires a singular referent.
9. The number of

vs A number of before a subject:

The number of is simgular

A number of is plural.

Multiplication Of
Integer
Rule 1: The product of a positive integer and a negative integer is a negative integer.
The product of two negative integers or two positive integers is a positive
Rule 2:
integer.
We can now use Rule 1 to solve the problem above arithmetically: (-6) (+4)
= -24. So Alicia owes $24. Let's look at some more examples of multiplying
integers using these rules.

Example 1:

Find the product of each pair of integers.

Multiplying Integers
Integers

Example 2:

Product

Rule Used

(+7) (+3) =

21

Rule 2

(+7) (-3) =

21

Rule 1

(-7) (+3) =

21

Rule 1

(-7) (-3) =

21

Rule 2

Find the product of each pair of integers.

Multiplying Two Integers
Integers

Product

Rule Used

(+8) (+4) =

32

Rule 2

(+11) (-2) =

22

Rule 1

(-14) (+3) =

42

Rule 1

(-9) (-5) =

45

Rule 2

In each of the above examples, we multiplied two integers by applying the

rules at the top of the page. We can multiply three integers, two at a time,
applying these same rules. Look at the example below.
Example 3:

Find the product of each set of integers.

Multiplying Three Integers
Integers

Product of First Two

Integers and the Third

(+5) (+3) (+2) =

(+15) (+2) =

(+8) (+2) (-5) =

(+16) (-5) =

(-6) (+3) (+4) =

(-18) (+4) =

(-9) (-3) (+2) =

(+27) (+2) =

(-4) (-3) (-5) =

(+12) (-5) =

Product
30

80
72
54

60

The Associative Law of Multiplication applies to integers. In Example 3

above, we multiplied the product of the first and second integer by the third
integer. We can also solve these problems by multiplying the first integer by
the product of the second and third. We will do this in Example 4 below.
Example 4:

Find the product of each set of integers.

Multiplying Three Integers
Integers

Product of First Integer

and the Last Two

(+5) (+3) (+2) =

(+5) (+6) =

(+8) (+2) (-5) =

(+8) (-10) =

(-6) (+3) (+4) =

(-6) (+12) =

( 9) ( 3) ( 2) =
( 4) ( 3) ( 5) =

Product

80
72

( 9) ( 6) =

( 4) ( 15) =

30

54

60

Summary: Multiplying two integers with like signs yields a positive product,
and multiplying two integers with unlike signs yields a negative
product. We can multiply three integers, two at a time, applying
these same rules.