Select an acceptable pronoun to complete this sentence. the people in the audience applauded; loved the way the movie ended. a. their b. her, his c. they d. its e. it f. he or she

The best option to complete this sentence is letter c. they.

Explanation:

A pronoun is a word used to substitute a noun that has already been mentioned before, be it in the same sentence, or in the context as a whole. Examples of pronouns are: me, I, him, theirs, hers etc. They can function as subjects or objects in a sentence.

In the sentence "The people in the audience applauded; loved the way the movie ended", there is a subject missing right before the verb "loved". Since the first clause is talking about the "the people in the audience" and their action of applauding, it is safe to assume that "people in the audience" loved the movie, and that's why they were applauding it. The second clause, thus, has the same subject as the first one.

There is no need, however, to repeat the subject "the people in the audience". Since "people" is the most important part of the subject and it is a plural noun, the best pronoun to substitute it is the third-person plural "they":

- The people in the audience applauded; they loved the way the movie ended.

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).