Pronouns - Number agreement in case of those/that

[vishalc581]

I was studying pronouns from MGMAT SC guide and had a doubt in below:


the GMAT insists that any “New Copy” that or those agree in number with the previous
version. If you must change number, repeat the noun.


Wrong: Her company is outperforming THOSE OF her competitors.
Right: Her company is outperforming THE COMPANIES OF her competitors.\

In the corrected version "company" and "the companies" do not agree in number.

Can you please explain this.

[Chelsey Cooley]

You only need number agreement between pronouns and their antecedents. There's no requirement that two nouns agree in number; 'her company' and 'the companies' are both just simple nouns. Since there are no pronouns involved, don't even let pronoun number agreement cross your mind.

[vishalc581]

HI,

Till now what I understood is "those of " don't agree in number with "her company". am I right?

So, can write the sentence as:

"Her company is outperforming THAT OF her competitors".


I also understood that nouns/pronouns need not to be agree in number with nouns/pronouns. Correct me if I understood wrong.

[Chelsey Cooley]

Your new example has correct agreement, but it isn't quite logically right. It implies that her competitors, among themselves, only have a single company. That's why the right sentence in these cases will often just do away with the pronoun altogether and replace it with 'the companies of', etc.

[vishalc581]

Got it. Thanks! Chelsey

[tim]