Identifying antecedents.
1a. The antecedent in the following sentence is Doctors: Doctors should schedule more time for patients so they do not spend so much time in the waiting room.
1b. The antecedent in the following sentence is patients: Doctors should schedule more time for patients so they do not spend so much time in the waiting room.
Which one do YOU THINK is correct? Which one makes sense? Does "they" refer to "Doctors" or to "patients"?
The word patient is the antecedent
Kaplan University Student
To identify the antecedents in a sentence, you need to understand what an antecedent is. An antecedent is a word or phrase that a pronoun refers to or replaces. In this case, we will be looking for the antecedents for the pronouns "they" and "so much time" in the given sentences.
Let's break down the sentences:
1a. Doctors should schedule more time for patients so they do not spend so much time in the waiting room.
In this sentence, the pronoun "they" is referring back to the noun "Doctors". The antecedent for "they" is "Doctors". It is important to note that "Doctors" is the noun being referred to or replaced by the pronoun.
Next, let's look at the second sentence:
1b. Doctors should schedule more time for patients so they do not spend so much time in the waiting room.
In this sentence, the pronoun "they" is referring back to the noun "patients". The antecedent for "they" is "patients". Again, "patients" is the noun being referred to or replaced by the pronoun.
So, to summarize:
1a. Antecedent for "they": Doctors
1b. Antecedent for "they": patients