SC, Ch 4: Problem Set : Q 13

[khurana_a_rs]

Q13) Meg left all her class notes at school because she decided that she could do all her homework without it

I understand that it needs to be replaced by them however I am unclear about use of pronoun "her". Is it not the case of possessive poison?

Please clarify. Thanks

[JonathanSchneider]

You're getting the rule backwards. People do this a lot.

After we have a subject (Meg), we are okay in using a possessive pronoun (her) to refer back to it. It's the other way around that's "poisonous." For example, we cannot say:

"Meg's class notes were so important that she could not study without them."

Here there is no real person yet for the "she" to refer back to.

Remember, Possessive Poison is a ONE-WAY rule: subject and object pronouns CANNOT refer back to a possessive noun. All else is fair game.