The gist of the saying went something like this: If a person wants to get ahead in life, you have to be willing to work for it. Which of the following language conventions is violated in the sentence above?
A.
Pronoun-antecedent agreement
B.
Verb tense
C.
Punctuation of an introductory clause
D.
Use of a colon
The language convention violated in the sentence is:
A. Pronoun-antecedent agreement
Explanation:
- A. Pronoun-antecedent agreement: The sentence has an issue with pronoun-antecedent agreement. Specifically, the pronoun “you” does not match the singular antecedent “a person.” The sentence should be revised for consistency, such as: “If a person wants to get ahead in life, they have to be willing to work for it.”
- B. Verb tense: The verb tenses in the sentence are consistent. There is no violation of verb tense as the actions described are all in the same time frame.
- C. Punctuation of an introductory clause: The introductory clause is correctly followed by a comma, so there is no violation of punctuation rules in this instance.
- D. Use of a colon: The sentence does not use a colon, so this convention is not applicable to the error in the sentence.
Thus, the issue in the sentence is related to pronoun-antecedent agreement.