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Lesson · Grade 6 · English Language Arts

Using Pronouns Correctly: Point Clearly to One Noun, and Match It

  • Grade 6
  • English Language Arts
  • 1 min 22 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC6-EN-27

A short passage about two friends and some kittens shows three pronouns: "she" could mean either Maya or Priya, "them" clearly means the kittens, and "it" does not match the plural noun kittens. A rule box gives the two checks every pronoun must pass, clear and matching, and a check table marks each pronoun with a tick or a cross; the fixed passage replaces the unclear pronoun with the noun Priya and the mismatched "it" with "they", turning every cross green before the one-line recap.

Concept: Using pronouns correctly

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

Pronouns stand in for nouns, but the reader has to know which noun each one means.

Here is a short passage about two friends and some kittens.

Transcript

What the lesson says

Pronouns stand in for nouns, but the reader has to know which noun each one means.

Here is a short passage about two friends and some kittens.

A pronoun, such as she, it, they or them, stands in for a noun so we do not have to repeat it.

Every pronoun needs two checks: is it clear which noun it means, and does it match that noun, one or more than one?

Look at she. It could mean Maya, or it could mean Priya, so the reader has to guess.

Them can only mean the kittens, and both are more than one, so it passes both checks.

It means only one thing, but the kittens are more than one, so this pronoun does not match.

Here is the same passage with both problems fixed.

When a pronoun is not clear, use the noun instead, so now we know Priya wanted to keep them.

And they matches the kittens, because both mean more than one.

Now every pronoun points to one clear noun, and the reader never has to guess.

A pronoun must point clearly to one noun, and it must match that noun.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 6

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: sentence structure and grammarBC6-EN-27

Previous: Subject-Verb Agreement: Make the Verb Match Its SubjectNext: Transition words: link your sentences

British Columbia, Grade 7

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: syntax and sentence fluencyBC7-EN-31

Previous: Subject-Verb Agreement: Make the Verb Match Its SubjectNext: Transition words: link your sentences

This lesson is also listed in Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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