This question has a historical significance in the annals of GMAT anthology .

For the first time in the available official sources, was it evident that GMAT is perfectly fine with a subject pronoun referring to a possessive noun.

It had been known for quite some time that GMAT was ok with an object pronoun referring to a possessive noun; however, most GMAT instructors continued to believe that GMAT would not be ok with a subject pronoun referring to a possessive noun.

This question proved otherwise and hence, continues to be a very cited question for this reason.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

A, Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.
The correct idiom is CONSIDER X Y and not Consider X to be Y
B, Although Elizabeth Barrett Brwoning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.
The correct idiom is CONSIDER X Y and not Consider X as Y
C, Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Brwoning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.
Comparison error. Elizabeth Browning was overshadowed by her husband, not her poetry.
D, Although Elizabeth Barrett browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.
Correct
E, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his husband.
Comparison error. The poetry has to cosidered better than the poetry of the husband and the the husband himself

Key Takeaways:
Idiom is CONSIDER X Y
Always look out for comparison issues. Compare a person with a person only.
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Hi raj44,

when ('s + .. pronoun) is used then in order to be sure of no ambiguity, Replace the pronoun with previous 's and see if the meaning is clear.
Note - This rule is applicable only when the Noun is in it's possessive form (Noun+'s) in the given sentence.

Following three sentences should clear this rule and choice "D":

example - 1:
wrong sentence - Seena's book was so successful that she decided to write a sequel.
this sentence is wrong because, the pronoun "she" needs Seena not Seena's as its referant but in our sentence Seena's is present not Seena.

example - 2:
Correct sentence - Seena's parents were happy with the success of her novel.
this sentence is correct because, the pronoun "her" needs Seena's not Seena for the correct meaning which is present in the sentence.

example-3: ABOVE RULE will not work in this sentence because possessive form of noun is not used.
correct sentence - Seena was happy with the success of her novel.
in this sentence we cannot replace her with Seena to check the meaning because Seena is not in possessive form. Here, Seena is the referant for the pronoun 'her' with no ambiguity because there is no other person mentioned in the sentence. Ambiguity would be when there are two person Seena, Elizabeth and her is used in the sentence.

In the choice "D" - Lets use the above RULE:
"Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband"
"Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of Browning's husband"

This is why choice "D" has no ambiguity.

+1 if this post helps
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I am bit worried If i am comparing anything wrong here..
I have gone through the thread and most of the things discussed around idiom and possessive pronoun.
I made to D by different reason. Please correct me if I am comparing anything wrong here
In every choice other than D , either we are comparing EBB with his success or Her husband with EBB's success. ONly D provides the correct comparison

A ) Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success. I think EBB's success is required
B) she was later overshadowed by his success. Same as A.
c) overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Brwoning's poetry... poetry is not overshadowed
D correct comaprision Although Elizabeth Barrett browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband
e) poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband Again same wrong comparision.

Hi @dhagg,
Option D, Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.
How is her refering Elizabeth here? the subject is EBB's success not EBB. Will you describe the rule regarding this?
Thanks in advance.

Hi KARISHMA315, this is where some knowledge on idioms can actually come in very handy. The correct idiom is considered and not considered as, as used in option B.


Actually her (a possessive pronoun) is very perfectly referring to the possessive noun Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s.

However, more relevant question in this regard would be: How is a subject pronoun she referring to a possessive noun Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s? As this sentence depicts, this is allowed on GMAT as well! So, for the most part, the case of a pronoun (subject/object/possessive) is not something that should bother you, while analyzing an option.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses most important idioms, their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Hi all,

I chose D after "consider X Y" split.

But I have question for choice D, what is the antecedent for pronoun "she", the possesive pronoun has antecendent "Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success"

Experts Please help

Yeah, the GMAT seems to have abandoned the rather uptight "possessive poison" rule. As long as the meaning is clear, we can use a regular pronoun to refer back to a possessive noun.
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Check out our detailed video solution to this problem here:
https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-soluti ... ection_805
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The pronoun rule that is stated in MGMAT forum (https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p46683) is
* POSSESSIVE NOUN with NON-POSSESSIVE PRONOUN is NOT OK.
BUT
ALL OTHER COMBINATIONS are ok.

1. Jose's room is so clean that his mother praises him
"His" can refer to "Jose's" because they both are possessives
"Him" is a problem because an object pronoun CANNOT refer to a possessive.

2. Jose keeps him room so clean that his mother praises him.
- Both possessive and object pronoun(his and him) can refer to a subject noun.

Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success. -- But how does the subject pronoun She refer to possessive noun 'Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success'?

Pronoun rules that I can remember-
1. A pronoun can stand ONLY for a noun or another pronoun.- Number(singular/plural) of the noun makes sense with number of the pronoun
2. Pronoun ambiguity is not tested on GMAT.

"so here's the simplest way of making the decision: (From Thursdays with Ron)

1) if you see an AMBIGUOUS PRONOUN that is REPLACED BY THE CORRECT NOUN in OTHER ANSWER CHOICES, then ELIMINATE the ambiguous pronoun and keep the specific noun.
for an example, see problem 68 in the blue verbal supplement, in which ""them"" is split against ""these companies"".

HOWEVER,
2) if you see an ambiguous pronoun that is NOT replaced by the correct noun in any of the other answer choices, then DON'T eliminate!
for an example, see problem 21 in the blue verbal supplement (in which the correct answer contains a technically ambiguous pronoun).
or see the problem in this thread!

4.also:
in general, OBJECTS OF PREPOSITIONS are very rarely the antecedents of pronouns. (i won't say never -- but rarely enough that, if you have to make a random guess, this is probably a pretty good standard by which to make such a guess.)
for instance:
if you have ""the cat in the box"", then it is very unlikely that a pronoun will be able to stand for ""box""."


AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasKarishma , DmitryFarber , ChiranjeevSingh , RonPurewal , VeritasPrepBrian , other experts -please enlighten
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