Learn English – Is “our and other” correct

It's always a mistake to think of grammar as involving commas and words following them. Grammar is clauses and phrases and predicates; there are no commas in language, only in writing.

In this case, there are two clauses:

1. ((Eric's) psychology class) was different from the other classes (that) (Eric) had taken
2. (Eric) was unhappy with ((Eric's) psychology class)

The pieces in parentheses are either deletable markers (like relative that) or noun phrases that can be replaced by pronouns (like he, his, and it) in the appropriate circumstances.

The problem is what the appropriate circumstances are for pronominalization, and that's what this question tests.

Pronouns always refer to someone or something that's obvious in context. When the context consists of only one sentence, the word denoting the person or thing (called the "antecedent") must be in the same sentence as the pronoun in order to be obvious.

But not just anywhere in that sentence. As the word antecedent (Latin for 'going before') suggests, normally the antecedent is spoken before the pronoun.

• He likes Eric's psychology class

is a perfectly good sentence, provided he doesn't refer to Eric; otherwise it's garbage. Switch them and it's fine. But this sentence has two clauses: sentence 2 is the main clause, and sentence 1 is a subordinate clause; this makes a difference for pronoun usage.

If the antecedent is in the main clause, and the pronoun is in a clause subordinate to the main clause, then a pronoun can come before its antecedent. For example, consider some simpler sentences:

• Before Marilyn became president I knew her.
• I knew Marilyn before she became president.
• Before she became president I knew Marilyn.
• *I knew her before Marilyn became president.

The first three are fine; in the first two, the antecedent (Marilyn) comes before the pronoun (her or she). In the third, the antecedent is in the main clause but the pronoun is in a subordinate clause, so even though the pronoun precedes its antecedent, it's OK. That's the same structure as the SAT sentence, and that's why the answer says there is no mistake.

But the fourth one is ungrammatical (that's what the asterisk indicates), because the pronoun is in the main clause and it precedes its antecedent, which is in a subordinate clause. So the SAT question tests whether you know the rule that distinguishes the third OK case from the fourth ungrammatical case.

1. Grammatically sound? Yes.
2. What's troublesome? Just a bit ungainly.
3. No actual mistakes.

Suggested rewording [words in square brackets are superfluous]:

"We are pleased to update you on our progress**,** and also propose an [new] idea that would speed up our product launch [into the market] and generate revenue.

• Add comma after "progress" to break up the long sentence.
• Does "new" add anything to "idea"?
• Where would you launch the product if not "into the market"?
• Could change "speed up" to "accelerate"