Each of Hemingway’s wives—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



Choice A: This answer choice features a subject-verb disagreement between the subject "Each of Hemmingway's wives" and the verb "were"; remember, the subject here is not "wives" rather it is "Each" which is singular. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice features a disagreement between the pronoun "each" and the noun "wives"; "each" must refer to a singular noun, among a multitude, while "wives" is plural. The appropriate construction is "each of them one of Hemmingway's wives". This answer choice also presents vital information between two hyphens, which in this case function as commas; if the phrase "each of them Hemingway’s wives" was removed from the sentence, the pronoun "his" would have no antecedent. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C: This answer choice maintains proper subject-verb agreement and pronoun use throughout the sentence and avoids the error of presenting vital information between two commas. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice D: This answer choice features a subject-verb disagreement between "women" and "was"; remember, in this answer choice the subject is "Strong and interesting women" and the following two clauses modify this subject by naming the concerned women and informing us that each was a wife of Hemmingway. Therefore, the subject will remain in the plural form. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E: This answer choice features a disagreement between the pronoun phrase "every one of Hemmingway's wives" and the verb "was", as the former is singular and the latter is plural. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

One important thing to note here is that the use of the possessive pronoun "his" in this sentence is perfectly correct; here, the possessive noun "Hemmingway's" serves are the antecedent for "his".

To understand the concept of "Possessive Pronoun can be Used with Possessive Noun on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between two Commas on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Each of Hemingway’s wives—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—were strong and interesting women, very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

A. Each of Hemingway’s wives—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—were strong and interesting women, “Each” is singular. So the plural verb “were” cannot be used.

B. Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—each of them Hemingway’s wives—were strong and interesting women, “Each” is singular. So the plural verb “were” cannot be used.

C. Hemingway’s wives—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—were all strong and interesting women, “Wives” is plural. So the plural verb “were” can be used.

D. Strong and interesting women—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—each a wife of Hemingway, was “Each” is singular. So the singular verb “was” has been used correctly. However, “strong and interesting” has been used to describe “women”. In that case, “each” cannot be used.

E. Strong and interesting women—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—every one of Hemingway’s wives were “Every” is singular. So the plural verb “were” cannot be used.

- Nitha Jay

i am glad you posted this question again.

hypens act as commas.

Hemingway’s wives—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—were all strong and interesting women, very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

Hemingway’s wives, Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh, were all strong and interesting women, very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh is an appositive clause.

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Hemingway’s wives were all strong and interesting women, very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

can someone elaborate on the structure of the latter half of the sentence above? it does not seem to be an absolute phrase because it does not modify the entire preceding clause. it modifies wives.

Each is a singular for eg : "each apple from the basket was tasty and fresh"
or "each one has to face the ordeal called GMAT"
similarly each of his wives was an interesting woman..

So going by this logic . A and B out.
D and E are grammatically ill-formed and awkward.
C is correct..

Hai Badgerboy

In option B, "Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh" is the subject of the sentence

"--each of them Hemingway's wives-- " could not be the subject of the sentnece becuse it is in hypen, so the subject should be plural.

In option C the subject " Hemingway's wives" is also in plural farm

I couldnt find any error in B &C. please provide your valuable explanation

Thanks in advance

Quick question - what does "he" modify here in C? hemingway's wives? hemingway as a subject is not mentioned separately in the sentence, so what can he modify?

Isn't this a rule?

hibo


Which "he' is being referred here? Probably you mean 'his'. His and Hemingway's are both possessives and hence isn't it oK?

could someone explain why d is wrong?

The sentence that option D leads to is:

Strong and interesting women—Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—each a wife of Hemingway, was very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

Here the subject is strong and interesting women (plural), but the verb is was (singular). This is probably the fastest way to take this option out.

AjiteshArun
can you elaborate on the structure of the latter half of the sentence above? it does not seem to be an absolute phrase because it does not modify the entire preceding clause. it modifies wives.

Hemingway’s wives were all strong and interesting women, very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

Hello AjiteshArun,
I hope that you are doing well.

Can you please elaborate on the above construction (i.e, the correct answer choice).
IMO,
the second part of the sentence is like a contrast to the kind of women he emphasised in his novels, but what's confusing is that there isn't any conjunction to connect the later idea to the sentence.
But I also think that using "and were" after the comma would also be incorrect because pallid already describes the opposite :


What will we call such a construction?

Hi aalekhoza,

The very different from... is an adjective phrase. The usage we see in the correct option (which sets the phrase off with a comma) is not something we'd normally encounter in speech, but it is perfectly acceptable in writing (it is more common in formal writing). It's a good way to add emphasis to the idea mentioned previously. That is something that an and is not very good at on its own (an and would make it seem as if there are two parts to what we are saying).

GMATNinja I eliminated C because "his" cant refer back to possessive. Can you point out what I am missing here?

You may be thinking of the "possessive poison" rule, but the GMAT no longer seems to follow this rule, and in any case, it would never have applied here. The objection (when it existed) was to using non-possessive pronouns to refer back to possessive nouns. The idea was presumably that since possessives act as modifiers, the noun in question didn't directly occur in the sentence. It was always fine to use possessive pronouns such as "his" to refer back to possessive pronouns such as "Hemingway's."

daagh
can u plz explain why B is wrong?

(B) Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh—each of them Hemingway’s wives—were strong and interesting women,
here subject is
Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh
so agrees with verb were

i know eah of them doesnot sound correct but can u plz explain

vanam,

The subject is each and not the four ladies; the name of each wife is an appositive modifier for the subject 'each'. : of them" is a prepositional modifier that has no say in the number of the verb. therefore 'was' is the correct verb. "were" is wrong. That is the reason B is wrong.

Azhr
Antecedent of 'his' is a non-issue. We know there is only male and whom else can 'his' refer to other than Hemingway? Can 'his novels' refer to Irving Wallace's or Sidney Sheldon's novels?
We also want a possessive noun for a possessive pronoun and 'his' and 'Hemingway's' are perfect foils.
Your point that we need non-possessive noun for a possessive pronoun is not clear.
In addition, we should limit the matching between 'his' and 'Hemingway's' I suppose but not extend it to his novels and wives. Otherwise, somebody will ask how one can equate wives with novels.
Azhr, can you please see the real logic?