<p>I was working on Cumulative Review #3 in Erica Meltzer's Ultimate Guide and came across this one (fix the error and label its category):</p>
<p>Between 1903 and 1913, the British suffragettes, a group devoted to helping women win the right to vote, resorted to increasingly extreme measures to make their voices heard.</p>
<p>The answer was: No error. </p>
<p>However, shouldn't the answer be, "to make (its) voices heard"? The sentence states that the British suffragettes is a group, so would it be "its" rather than "their" as the pronouns is referring to a singular noun?</p>
<p>You should notice that “a group” is within two commas, simply acting as a modifier for suffragettes. therefore, we can take it out, and read it as “suffragettes resorted to measures to make their voices heard” so their corresponded with suffragettes. Don’t get tricked by commas!</p>
<p>ex. the people who make up the society ARE smart.
the people of the US, a society that seeks to contribute to the welfare of the state and the poor, are continually working to reach greater goals.</p>
<p>OK… I admit my examples suck but you get the point? right?</p>
<p>The subject of the sentence is “suffragettes,” which is plural and takes a plural pronoun. The presence of the dependent clause (“a group … right to vote”) doesn’t change that.</p>
<p>@ThereAreLlamas @andyis - Just for confirmation, “a group devoted…” is a non-essential clause that is meant to distract from the real subject? Thanks to you both for the great explanation; I understand it now!</p>