First, the idea
A pronoun is a short word that stands in for a noun, so that the writer does not have to say the noun over and over. He, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, its, and their are all pronouns. Read these two lines.
Ahmed lit the ovens at ten. Ahmed checked the ovens at eleven.
Ahmed lit the ovens at ten. He checked them at eleven.
The two lines say the same thing. In the second one, he stands in for Ahmed, and them stands in for the ovens.
The noun a pronoun stands in for has a name of its own. It is called the pronoun's antecedent: the word the pronoun points back to. The word means "the one that goes before," because the noun usually comes first and the pronoun comes after and points back to it. In the second line above, the antecedent of he is Ahmed, and the antecedent of them is the ovens.
Think about the counter at the bakery on a busy morning. A customer at the back of the line does not always shout an order over everyone's heads. Often she just holds up her hand: one finger for one loaf of rye, three fingers for three rolls. Whoever is at the register reads the count from her hand. The hand drawn at the top of this page is holding up one finger.
A pronoun is a counting hand. It holds up a count: one finger, or more than one. Its antecedent, the word it points back to, has a count too, and the two counts must be the same. It, its, he, him, his, she, and her hold up one finger. They, them, and their hold up more than one. When the pronoun's count and the antecedent's count match, the pronoun agrees with its antecedent. When they do not match, the reader goes looking for some other word with the right count, and may find the wrong one.
That matching is called agreement, the same word Quiz 37 used for a subject and its verb. There the subject and verb matched in number. Here a pronoun and its antecedent match in number: one with one, more than one with more than one.
Here is a match. Read it aloud once.
The new mixer came on Monday, and it is already running.
The pronoun is it, one finger. It points back to the new mixer, which is one mixer. One and one: they match.
The holiday pies are in the walk-in, and they stay there until pickup.
The pronoun is they, more than one. It points back to the holiday pies, more than one. They match.
Here is a miss.
The proofer ran too hot last night, so turn them down two degrees before you load the trays.
The proofer is the warm cabinet where shaped dough rises. The pronoun is them, which holds up more than one finger. The reader looks back for something that is more than one, and finds nothing: the proofer is one, and last night is one. So the reader keeps going and lands on the trays, the only words in the sentence that are more than one. Turn the trays down two degrees? That is not what the writer meant. The writer meant the proofer, which is one, and one takes it: turn it down two degrees.
So the check is a question: how many fingers? It has four steps. Find the pronoun. Count its fingers. Find the word it points back to, its antecedent. Count that word. If the two counts are the same, the check passes. If they are not, change the pronoun.
Most of the time the check is easy. There are four places where it gets harder, and they are the places the test likes to use. Some of them will be familiar from Quiz 37.
1. Words standing in between. Read this sentence.
The tray of sesame rolls by the window is for the café next door, so please do not move it.
The pronoun is it, one finger. What does it point back to? Rolls is the word that catches the eye, but rolls are more than one, so the count rules them out. The words of sesame rolls only tell what kind of tray it is. They stand between the antecedent and the pronoun, the way people stood between the subject and the verb in Quiz 37. The antecedent is the tray: one tray, one finger. The window is one as well, but nobody was going to move the window. The count narrows the choice, and the meaning finishes it. When the count and the meaning both leave two words standing, that is a different problem, and Quiz 40 takes it up.
2. Two nouns joined by "and." Each person or thing may be one, but and puts them together, and together they are more than one.
Mr. Okafor and Daniela sat down with their coffee and went over the new schedule.
Mr. Okafor is one person. Daniela is one person. Joined by and, they are two, and the counting hand holds up more than one finger: their.
3. "Each," "every," and "neither." These words can come before a whole shelf of things, but they mean one at a time. Each means each one, by itself. Every means every single one. Neither means not this one and not that one, taken one at a time. So they hold up one finger.
Every pie box on the shelf has its order slip taped to the lid.
Neither mixer has its guard on right now.
There are many pie boxes on the shelf, but every looks at them one box at a time, and each box has its own slip: its. There are two mixers, but neither looks at them one at a time: its.
These words also come up with people: each baker, every customer, everyone. Here everyday English has something to say. People often say Every customer got their order on time, using their for one person whose name is not known, and many careful writers now accept it. On the test, the safe choice is a sentence where the match is plain: The customers got their orders on time. In this quiz, the sentences with each, every, and neither are about things, where the count is plain, so you will not be asked to choose between those two.
4. Words that name a group. A word like bakery, crew, company, union, or family names one group, even though the group is made of many people. In American English, and on the test, a group word usually holds up one finger.
The night crew has its own coffee pot in the back.
The verb has already counts the crew as one, and the pronoun keeps that count: its. A good habit follows from this. If a sentence has already counted a group as one, with a verb like is or has, keep that same count for the pronoun.
This is a place where talk and the test differ. In talk, almost everyone says the crew … their, and almost everyone says they about a store: "They open at six." Everyone understands it, and in conversation nothing is wrong with it. In writing for the test, the group is one. Quizzes 42 and 57 are where moving between the English of talk and the English of the test becomes a named strength.
One small word needs a note. Its, the one-finger pronoun for belonging, has no apostrophe, the same as his and her: the walk-in and its door. It's, with an apostrophe, means it is. Quiz 41 takes up that pair in full.
On the test, these questions arrive as dropdowns inside workplace documents: handbooks, notices, memos. The pronoun is often several words away from its antecedent, with other nouns in between, and the wrong choices are built to match the nearest noun. Find the pronoun, count its fingers, and go back to the word it really points to.
Worked example — thinking out loud
Daniela, the new assistant manager, is writing a page of the staff handbook for the night shift. A starter is a jar of live dough; every sourdough loaf and every rye loaf begins with a spoonful of one. Here is a line from her first draft, whole.
The rye starter and the sourdough starter sit on the second shelf by the bench. Feed it at midnight, before you mix the first doughs.
Read it aloud once. Nothing stumbles. Now run the check. The pronoun is it. Count its fingers: one. Now look back for the word it points to, and count each one that could fit. The bench: one, but nobody feeds a bench. The second shelf: one, and no. The sourdough starter: one, and a starter does get fed.
That is the tempting path. The nearest word with the right count and a sensible meaning is the sourdough starter, so the sentence seems to work. But follow it through. Ahmed, the night baker, reads the page, feeds the sourdough starter at midnight, and the rye starter goes hungry.
Why it fails, in one sentence: the writer meant both starters, and the word and had already made the antecedent two things, so the pronoun had to hold up more than one finger.
The right path counts the antecedent first. The rye starter and the sourdough starter: two things joined by and, more than one. The pronoun must hold up more than one finger.
The rye starter and the sourdough starter sit on the second shelf by the bench. Feed them at midnight, before you mix the first doughs.
Check: them, more than one. Back to the starters, two. The counts match. The first doughs is also more than one, but it comes after the pronoun, and the sentence is telling Ahmed to mix the doughs, not to feed them. The first version was grammatical. It just said less than Daniela meant, and on a night page that means a starter nobody fed.
A second line from the same draft.
Okafor's Bakery takes holiday pie orders until the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and they cannot add orders after that day.
The pronoun is they, more than one. Look back for a word that is more than one: holiday pie orders. The count matches, so this looks fine. Now put the antecedent in place of the pronoun and read it: orders cannot add orders. That makes no sense. Who adds orders? The bakery. Okafor's Bakery is one business, one finger.
Okafor's Bakery takes holiday pie orders until the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and it cannot add orders after that day.
The count found a word, but it was the wrong word, and the meaning caught it. Daniela wrote they because that is how everyone talks about a store. On the page, and on the test, the bakery is one.
Part A · The skill by itself
Read each sentence aloud once before you look at the choices. Find the pronoun and count its fingers. Then find the word it points back to, and count that.
1. Choose the pronoun. Take the rye loaves out at four and set ___ on the top rack to cool.
2. Choose the pronoun. Marisol and Daniela wrote ___ names at the top of the new schedule.
3. Choose the pronoun. Each of the three ovens has ___ own timer.
4. Which sentence has a pronoun whose count does not match the word it points back to?
5. The pie boxes from the supplier came late, so Daniela stacked them beside the register. What does them point back to?
6. Daniela wants the new baker to let the rolls cool, not the pan. All four sentences are grammatical. Which one says what she means, with no doubt about what it or them points to?
Part B · The skill in the wild
Daniela got the assistant manager job, as Mr. Okafor announced in Quiz 37. One of her first tasks was a new page for the staff handbook. Five decision points. At each dropdown, choose the version where every pronoun holds up the same count as the word it points back to, and points back to the word the writer means.
OKAFOR'S BAKERY — Staff Handbook
Page 6: Sick Days and Swapping Shifts
From Daniela Vega, Assistant Manager · October 2026
This page is new. Mr. Okafor asked me to write down what we have always done, so that everyone works by the same rules, including the people who started this year.
Sick days. Every full-time worker gets five paid sick days a year. 1 [a. The bakery pays for these days at your regular rate, and they do not ask for a doctor's note for one or two days in a row. / b. The bakery pays for these days at your regular rate, and it does not ask for a doctor's note for one or two days in a row. / c. The bakery pays for these days at your regular rate, and he does not ask for a doctor's note for one or two days in a row.]
If you are sick, call me or Mr. Okafor at least two hours before your shift starts. A text is fine if you cannot talk. 2 [a. Our phone numbers are posted on the board by the register, and it is also printed at the bottom of this page. / b. Our phone numbers are posted on the board by the register, and them are also printed at the bottom of this page. / c. Our phone numbers are posted on the board by the register, and they are also printed at the bottom of this page.]
Swapping shifts. You may trade a shift with another worker who can do the same job. Both of you must agree, and the trade has to be written down. For example, if Ahmed and Marisol trade a Friday night, 3 [a. they must both write their names on the swap sheet. / b. she must write her name on the swap sheet. / c. he must write his name on the swap sheet.]
The swap sheets are in the folder by the time clock. 4 [a. Every swap sheet must have two signatures on them before they go in the tray on my desk. / b. Every swap sheet must have two signatures on it before it goes in the tray on my desk. / c. Every swap sheet must have two signatures on it before they go in the tray on my desk.] I will add the trade to the schedule within a day.
A swap on nights needs one more step. 5 [a. The night crew is small, and she cannot run a full bake with a baker missing, so call me before you agree to a night swap. / b. The night crew is small, and they cannot run a full bake with a baker missing, so call me before you agree to a night swap. / c. The night crew is small, and it cannot run a full bake with a baker missing, so call me before you agree to a night swap.]
If you have a question about this page, ask me in person or send me a text.
Daniela