The phrase pronoun/antecedent agreement sounds difficult to students, but in reality it is not a hard concept. Taking the time to teach it, though, is a worthwhile endeavor. Students are often unclear in their writing and one problem is pronoun/antecedent agreement. Plus learning how words can be unclear will help them to think out other problems that are not necessarily pronoun related.
The term antecedent just means whatever the pronoun is taking the place of. When that object/person/place is ambiguous, students get errors in their writing. To teach them this, show them how these puns are funny because the antecedent is unclear:
She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but she broke it off.
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger, then it hit me.
I borrowed, and then lost, my wife's audio book. I'll never hear the end of it.
I offered my elderly neighbor $20 to give me a ride up her stair lift. I think she's going to take me up on it.
The ghost teacher said to the class - watch the board and I'll go through it again.
Who says grammar can't be fun!
Got another good pun to add to the list? Just drop it in the comments.
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