After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, some o

Question

After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, some of its members started questioning  its  decision-making process.

Options:
A)its
B) their

Please advice.

ag111 · Answer

Jury is singular. Why the pronoun would be "their" here?

redevil29 · Answer

the answer to this question depends on whether the jury is singular or plural. The hint to this is in the sentence only. Look at the first use of "its" in the sentence which clearly refers back to the jury and hence the second reference should also be singular.

IMO answer should be A) its.

IMO answer should be A) its.

anuj11 · Answer

The subject will be in the prepositional phrase if we are dealing with quantity or numbers.

Here the subject is "Members" as the pronoun "SOME" is used before the prepositional phrase.

Remember whenever the SAMAN pronouns are used the subject will be in the prepositional phrase

Abhishek009 · Answer

Refer the discussion in this page - https://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm

ag111 · Answer

Thats the question i have jury being singular why their is right option?

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ag111 · Answer

Their is the right answer. Let me know if you figure why.

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ag111 · Answer

Thats the question i have jury being singular why 'their' is the right option?

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ag111 · Answer

But here the subject is 'jury' isnt it?

Consider this-

After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, some of its members started questioning 'jury' decision-making process.

Does this sentence make sense? -Yes.

Then why the right option is B - 'their'?

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hyunoo87 · Answer

for example, the word "Committee" can be used as singular or plural depending on what "Committee" is referring to in the context.
if the "Committee is referring to the whole group, it can be used as singular, but if it is referring to the members, then it is used as plural.

GMATNinjaTwo · Answer

Consider the sentence: "Some of the town's residents are concerned about their taxes."; in this case, a plural verb ("are") and a plural possessive pronoun ("their") are needed because "some" is a plural subject. Similarly, in choice B, who started questioning their decision-making? Some of the jury's members. Since this is a plural subject, "their" must be used.

daagh · Answer

After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, some of its members started questioning its decision-making process.

Options:
A)its
B) their

Let us look at this logically. Let's say the jury has 10 members and seven of them have said that the defendant was guilty and three others have said that the opposite. Therefore, as is the norm, the majority view is given as the jury's verdict. Now, who is questioning whom? Obviously, the majority members aren't going to question themselves. Logic infers that it is the minority members who are questioning the majority. 
However, the majority members have only view, which is also the jury's view. So, they minority is saying that the decision of the jury to go by the majority is wrong. Let us appreciate that there may be several jurors in a jury but there is only one jury and only one decision, the sum total of all the members. That is the one that is being criticized and therefore, the answer is pointedly singular and 'its".

GMATNinjaTwo · Answer

Without any other context, either option can indeed be defended. After all, whose decision making process is being questioned, that of the entire jury (singular) or that of individual members? If you think it's the former, then the answer is "its." If you think it's the latter, then the answer is "their". It's easier to see this distinction if you replace "some of the jurors" with something singular...

Case 1: "After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, Jonathan, one of the jurors, started questioning  his  decision making process." - in this case, Jonathan is questioning his own decision making process, not that of the jury as a whole.... arguably confusing (because the sentence refers to both the  decision  of the jury and the  decision making process  of one of the jurors) but not incorrect

Case 2: "After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, Jonathan, one of the jurors, started questioning  its  decision making process." - in this case, Jonathan is questioning the decision making process of the jury

If we go with case 1, but replace Jonathan with something plural, then the possessive pronoun  his  must be changed to  their , as in the posted sentence. But if we go with case 2,  its  will remain unchanged.

So how do we know which to use? As presented in the post, the answer to this question depends on your interpretation of the sentence. Luckily, on the GMAT, other factors and clues will lead us to the best answer. Unfortunately, the full answer choices to this question were not included in the post. If we trust the "correct" answer, then we can defend it and hope the actual answer choices contained other supporting evidence; otherwise, the answer is debatable. Either way, official GMAT questions will not be this ambiguous, so don't worry too much about this one if you are still confused!

anje29 · Answer

Any of the SANAM Pronouns ( Some, Any, None, All and Many ) can be either singular or plural depending upon the context of the sentence, or more specifically based on the 'of' construction.

VerbalBot · Answer

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After the jury gave the decision that the defendant was guilty, some o

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