"Her organization got a Nobel Peace Prize nomination a couple of years ago for the work they did in Afghanistan. She goes on speaking tours and gives lectures. I'm quite proud of her. We have the sort of relationship I've always wanted. I'm the stupid guy who tells jokes, and then she contributes the give-back-to-society part, so as a team we work pretty good." - Jay Leno, in Interview, about his wife Mavis, who is the chair of the Feminist Majority Foundation's Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan
Jay has made two common errors that often appear in questions on standardized examinations. He has made an error in pronoun/antecedent agreement and an error in modifier confusion.
In the first sentence, the antecedent of the plural pronoun “they” is the singular “organization.” While organizations are composed of groups of people, a group is considered to be singular. To correct the error, use a singular pronoun to refer to the singular antecedent.
"Her organization got a Nobel Peace Prize nomination a couple of years ago for the work it did in Afghanistan."
Interestingly, people generally think that the use of a singular verb when the subject is an organization "sounds right" (compare "The organization was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize" with "The organization were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize") but that a plural pronoun "sounds better" than a singular one in the same context. Remember that both the verb and the pronoun associated with an organization should be singular.
In the last sentence, the adjective "good" modifies the verb "work." This is incorrect because an adjective cannot modify a verb; only an adverb can modify a verb. To correct the error, change the adjective to an adverb that conveys the same meaning.
"I'm the stupid guy who tells jokes, and then she contributes the give-back-to-society part, so as a team we work pretty well."
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