Possessive Pronouns

[g.shiqian]

This was from the SC Flashcards.

In spite of Charlie's protest, his friends-including his closest companion Rafael- insisted that Charlie consider outside aid to help Charlie deal with his eating disorder.

The exaplanation said that "The use 'his' in the phrase 'his friends' is okay, because only possessive pronouns can refer to nouns that are part of a possessive clause".

What does that mean?! Can someone provide another example?

[tim]

here are a couple of examples we've used in our curriculum:

"Jose's room is so clean that his mother praises him."
"his" can refer to "Jose's" because they are both possessive; however, "him" is a problem because an object pronoun cannot refer to a possessive.

"Jose keeps his room so clean that his mother praises him."
no problems here; both possessive and object pronouns ("his" and "him") can refer to a subject noun.

[g.shiqian]

Awesome. Thanks!

[tim]

glad to help!

[BrianS177]

here are a couple of examples we've used in our curriculum:

"Jose's room is so clean that his mother praises him."
"his" can refer to "Jose's" because they are both possessive; however, "him" is a problem because an object pronoun cannot refer to a possessive.

"Jose keeps his room so clean that his mother praises him."
no problems here; both possessive and object pronouns ("his" and "him") can refer to a subject noun.

Just to follow up here:

Wrong: My mother's problem was difficult for her.

Bizarre!

[tim]

The GMAT adheres to a lot of sentence correction rules that seem bizarre. The trick is just to play along and give them what they want. :)

[RonPurewal]

DO NOT think about this "rule". There's really no possible benefit——and, as shown right here, there's a very real threat of polluting your thought processes with garbage.

This "rule" has been the basis of a grand total of zero official problems. None, ever.
If you have the most recent edition of our SC books, it shouldn't even be mentioned in there anymore.

Read here:
post46683.html#p46683

[RexA510]

The GMAT adheres to a lot of sentence correction rules that seem bizarre. The trick is just to play along and give them what they want. :)

Yes I am 100% agree. The GNAT adheres to a lot of sentence correction rules that seems bizarre.

[tim]

Indeed.