Antecedents

What Is an Antecedent?

An antecedent is the word (or words) that a pronoun refers to. The word antecedent means to 'go before' in Latin. It gets its name from the idea that a pronoun refers to something previously mentioned in the sentence. Look at this example:

• When you see the professor, please tell him I'll be 10 minutes late this evening.

• (In this example, the antecedent is professor. It is the word that the pronoun 'him' refers to. The word 'professor' comes before the pronoun 'him'. )

Typically, the antecedent of a pronoun is a noun or a noun phrase. Despite the name, an antecedent does not always come before its pronoun. Look at this example:

• When you see him, please tell the professor I'll be 10 minutes late this evening.

• (In this example, the antecedent is still professor even though it comes after its pronoun.)

More Examples of Antecedents

Here are some more examples of antecedents of pronouns:

• Gail called to say she will arrive at 7 o'clock.

• (In this example, Gail is the antecedent of the personal pronoun she.)

• The man who lives next door lost his driving licence.

• (In this example, man is the antecedent of the relative pronoun 'who' and the possessive adjective (a type of pronoun) 'his'.)

• Mark, did you see the whelk which Lee caught?

• (In this example, Mark is the antecedent of the personal pronoun 'you', and whelk is antecedent of the relative pronoun 'which'.)