The Battle for the Nest: Pronoun Agreement Dilemma

What is the issue in the sentence "The woodpecker and his mate tried its best to oust the squirrel who had stolen their nest"?

a) pronoun agreement b) verb tense c) subject-verb agreement

Answer:

The correct answer to the question is A.

The issue with the sentence is with the pronoun agreement as 'its' should have been 'their' to agree with the plural subject 'the woodpecker and his mate'.

Explanation: The issue with this sentence is a) pronoun agreement. In English, pronouns must agree in number with their antecedent, which is the noun they replace. The antecedent in this sentence is 'the woodpecker and his mate', a plural noun phrase. Thus, the correct pronoun should be 'their' instead of 'its'. An accurate revision of this sentence would be: The woodpecker and his mate tried their best to oust the squirrel who had stolen their nest.