TOEIC Link Reading Part 5 — Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Without Guessing
A pronoun has to match the noun it stands for — its antecedent — in both number and, where relevant, person. That rule sounds trivial, and in isolation it is. What makes TOEIC Link Part 5 pronoun items difficult is the same trick that makes its subject-verb items difficult: the test separates the pronoun from the word it actually refers to, and it seeds the gap with words that feel like the wrong number. If you match the pronoun to whatever noun is nearest, or to what sounds natural, you walk straight into the trap the item was designed around.
The trap in one sentence
Look at this stem:
"Every employee who joined the training sessions must submit
___feedback form by Friday." (A) their (B) our (C) its (D) his or her
The nouns closest to the blank — sessions, training — pull nothing useful, and employee is the real antecedent. But the word in front of it is every, and every forces the singular no matter how many people it describes. So a plural their feels natural to the ear yet fails the grammar the item is testing. The controlled answer is (D), his or her. TOEIC Link uses formal written-standard agreement here, so it treats every employee as singular and expects a singular pronoun to match.
The method: name the antecedent, then decide its number
The fix is the same structural discipline behind stripping out the phrase that hides the true subject in agreement items: you decide by what the pronoun refers to, not by what sits beside it.
- Find the pronoun blank.
- Ask: what noun does this pronoun replace? Say it out loud — "the form belongs to the employee."
- Decide the number of that noun using the rules below, ignoring any phrase that follows it.
- Choose the pronoun that matches: singular his/her/its, plural their.
The three patterns tested most often
1. each, every, everyone, someone, anybody — singular, always
These indefinite words feel plural because they scan a group, but grammatically they are singular and take a singular pronoun in standard written English.
"Each of the managers presented
___quarterly targets." → his or her (subject is each, not managers)
The of the managers phrase is there only to tell you which group. It never controls the pronoun — exactly the same logic as the "one of the" pattern covered in subject-verb agreement across an intervening phrase.
2. Collective nouns — team, staff, committee, company
A collective noun is singular when the group acts as one unit, which is how TOEIC Link almost always frames it in a business context. The matching pronoun is it / its, not they / their.
"The committee announced that
___decision was final." → its
"The company will notify customers of any change to
___privacy policy." → its
English learners frequently reach for their here because a company is made of people. On TOEIC Link, treat a named organization as a singular it unless the sentence explicitly splits it into members ("the staff disagreed among themselves").
3. Compound antecedents joined by or / nor — match the nearer noun
When two antecedents are joined by and, the pronoun is plural. But with or or nor, the pronoun agrees with whichever noun is closer to it.
"Neither the director nor the assistants submitted
___reports on time." → their (nearer noun assistants is plural)
"Neither the assistants nor the director submitted
___report on time." → his or her (nearer noun director is singular)
Notice the answer flips purely on word order. Read to the last noun before the pronoun and match that one.
A quick decision checklist
| Antecedent word | Number | Pronoun to choose |
|---|---|---|
| each, every, everyone, someone, anyone, nobody | singular | his or her / its |
| a collective noun (team, staff, company, committee) acting as a unit | singular | its |
| two nouns joined by and | plural | their |
| two nouns joined by or / nor | matches the nearer noun | depends on that noun |
| a plain plural noun (employees, reports) | plural | their |
Why the "sounds natural" instinct fails here
Spoken English increasingly uses they/their as a singular for words like everyone and each, and that usage is perfectly acceptable in conversation. TOEIC Link, however, tests the formal written standard, and its answer keys reward the singular match. This is the same reason you cannot trust your ear on verb tense and time-marker agreement: the natural-sounding option and the grammatically-controlled option are often deliberately different words. Decide by the rule, confirm by the antecedent, and only then check whether it also sounds right.
Practice routine
Take ten Part 5 items that contain any pronoun — its, their, his, her, our — and before looking at the choices, underline the exact noun each pronoun replaces and write "S" or "P" above it. Then pick. You will find that most of your former errors were not about the rule at all; they were about matching the pronoun to the wrong noun. Fix the antecedent-finding step and the agreement takes care of itself.