While depressed property values ca

[RonPurewal]

went for option C, where they and their both refer to property values.

no. in that answer choice, "their" refers to homeowners, not property values.
to make this extra clear:
you see: their equity
ask yourself: whose equity?
the answer is "homeowners' equity", not "property values' equity" (in fact, the latter of these wouldn't make sense in any context).

2) Also, is it that usage of pronoun does not necessarily refer back to immediate noun (like the case of which, who)...

i'm sorry, but i don't understand what you're asking here.

[karun395]

While depressed property values can hurt some large investors, they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose equity - in many cases representing a life's savings - can plunge or even disappear.

A. they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose
B. they can potentially devastate homeowners in that their
C. for homeowners they are potentially devastating, because their
D. for homeowners, it is potentially devastating in that their
E. it can potentially devastate homeowners, whose


Please explain the problem with B?

While I understand that pronouns are correctly used only in option A, I believe Option A is not parallel.
While depressed rates hurt large investors they are devastating to.... there seems to be a comparison. Hence, should the two not be parallel i.e. since hurt is given, the correct option must have devastate. Am I missing something or do pronouns trump parallelism?

[tim]

there is no parallelism problem here: subject-verb on one side, subject-verb on the other side. what makes you think this is somehow not parallel?

[garimag807]

Hi Ron,
Just one question, I felt 'can' and 'potentially' both mean possibility...
I felt redundancy here..
Am I on the right path??

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,
Just one question, I felt 'can' and 'potentially' both mean possibility...
I felt redundancy here..
Am I on the right path??

yes, that's valid reasoning. nicely done.

[garimag807]

went for option C, where they and their both refer to property values.

no. in that answer choice, "their" refers to homeowners, not property values.
to make this extra clear:
you see: their equity
ask yourself: whose equity?
the answer is "homeowners' equity", not "property values' equity" (in fact, the latter of these wouldn't make sense in any context).

I eliminated C on the basis "they and their" referring to property values, making no sense to have their = property values... as property values can't have equity

so my elimination was wrong ...
can't get way to eliminate C then

[tim]

It sounds like you actually did the right thing. The "they" and "their" logically refer to different things, but the GMAT requires them to refer to the same thing in order to be grammatically correct. Because of this discrepancy you can eliminate C.

[aflaamM589]

P?

you've got "they" and "their" in the same clause. if you have two or more instances of "they"/"their" in the SAME CLAUSE, then they must stand for the same thing.

this is the problem with (b): the first "they" is trying to stand for "depressed property values", but the second is trying to stand for "homeowners". not ok.

Ron, does this apply to one(pronoun) as well?
Best,

[tim]

Can you be more specific about what you're asking? Perhaps an example sentence would help.

[aflaamM589]

I tried to apply what Ron said above on this SC.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t3173.html
An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.

First pronoun one refers to course of action
second pronoun one refers to signs

Does what Ron said applicable here as well?
Thanks in anticipation

P.S:I didn't know weather to post this query in this thread or the thread of SC cited in the link.
But since rule i am trying to understand is cited by Ron here in this thread, i think i should go with the query in this thread. Please do let me know if otherwise is recommended.

[RonPurewal]

the use of "ones" is discussed in copious detail on page 4 of that link. please check it out.

[JbhB682]

While depressed property values can hurt some large investors, they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose equity - in many cases representing a life's savings - can plunge or even disappear.

A. they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose
B. they can potentially devastate homeowners in that their
C. for homeowners they are potentially devastating, because their
D. for homeowners, it is potentially devastating in that their
E. it can potentially devastate homeowners, whose


Please explain the problem with B?

you've got "they" and "their" in the same clause. if you have two or more instances of "they"/"their" in the SAME CLAUSE, then they must stand for the same thing.

this is the problem with (b): the first "they" is trying to stand for "depressed property values", but the second is trying to stand for "homeowners". not ok.

Hi - Per Ron's mention, C is elimination because there are two pronouns in the same clause but referring to two different subjects.

Question : how are you sure in C, both the pronouns belong to the same clause....Seems like in C, the first "They" belongs to one clause and the second "their" belongs to another clause ...hence separate clauses ?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I'm not sure I understand your question - Ron was discussing answer B, not C.

In any case, I encourage my students to consider the meaning of the sentence first (I personally don't use that rule about they and their in the same clause). If the pronoun is unclear or ambiguous, then eliminate the answer. We can definitely do this for answer C.

[JbhB682]

Hi Sage - can the following sentence work regarding pronouns

Source : completely made up

Sue is 10 years old and Simran, her sister, is 5 years older : Being the older one, she graduated first

Could this be accurate ? In this case, from a meaning perspective -- its obvious "She" is Simran

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I guess that sentence works from a meaning perspective. That said, were I composing that sentence I'd replace the 'she' with Simran to make the reader's life easier. Pronoun ambiguity is something of a grey area on GMAT, so I'd hesitate to speculate too firmly on made up examples.