Though these are not from the strategy guide but from flashcards (please let me know if I should post this elsewhere)

Q: My child has better hygiene than those of my sister; neither of her boys ever seem to wash their hands.

Suggested answer is
My child has better hygiene than my sister's children; neither of her boys ever seems to wash his hands.

My concern is doesnt her require an antecedent? Sister's cant be it right?

Ditto for the following
After the president of the college worried publicly about the sharp drop in the value of its endowment, the head of the faculty suggested that they initiate a fundraising campaign immediately.

Suggested ans: After the university's admins worried publicly about the sharp drop in the value of its endowment, the head of [the?] faculty suggested that the college initiate a fundraising campaign immediately.

Again, whats the antecedent for its? Can the antcedent be later in the sentence (like college here)? I am guessing it can be (e.g. In its effort to ..., the government ...) - but can the MG Gurus please confirm -thanks,

Oh, we don't have an explicit place for flashcard questions! Yes, this is a good place to post those.

You can use "sister's" as the antecedent for the pronoun "her." You can use a possessive noun ("sister's") as the antecedent as long as the pronoun itself is also in possessive form. "Her" is a possessive pronoun ("her boys"), so it's okay in this case. Ditto on the second one: "its endowment" - "its" is a possessive pronoun, so it can refer to a possessive noun.

You can also, by the way, have the antecedent later in the sentence than the pronoun - this isn't as common as having the antecedent first, but it is allowed.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Thanks

You're welcome.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Team,

I have a question about

My child has better hygiene than my sister’s children;

Shouldn't it be " My child has better hygiene than my sister’s children have . " ?

Since has cannot be propagated to act as children's verb as Children is plural. Please suggest .

I can’t think of a specific OG problem that is on point here, but I believe you are allowed to impute a different conjugation of a verb if necessary as long as the explicit comparison you make holds up. So I think that part of things is okay..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

I think in the above Flashcard question , there is a parallelism conflict .

child ( i.e. singular ) Vs children ( plural)

Any comments ?

child and children are both nouns. unless the meaning of the sentence requires it, that's all that matters. nouns don't have to be the same number, verbs don't have to be the same tense (see #42 in the OG), etc..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Thanks Tim !

my pleasure!

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor