The Absence of a Pronoun Antecedent

An online local news provider reported about the same-sex marriage and went:

... This came amid news that New York City has also legalized gay marriage. It became the sixth state in the United States to do so.

There are two things that are wrong in this sentence.

1. The pronoun It in the second sentence does not have an antecedent. The pronoun does not clearly point to New York City.
2. If the It pronoun does point to New York City, then it negates the succeeding thought, which is "the sixth state in the United States..." New York City is not a state. There is a New York state of which New York City is a part of. 

Be careful with your pronoun antecedents and facts.

One of the...

One of the city in Europe that I love is Paris.

What's wrong with this sentence?

It should read:

One of the cities in Europe that I love is Paris.

The rule:
The phrase "one of the," should have an object that is plural.
The structure: One of the Noun(plural)

More examples:
One of the ways to earn money online is to put Google Adsense in your site or blog.
One of the things I like about you is your thoughtfulness.

This is yet another common mistake in English essays. :)

It's v. Its

This is a common mistake. I see this confusion every time I edit posts or articles of my teammates.

The difference is really simple.

It's is a contraction form of "It is." In some rare cases it is also the contraction form of "It has."

Its is a possessive pronoun and also called a possessive adjective. It is the possessive form of the personal pronoun "it." It means belonging to or relating to something that has already been mentioned.

Examples:

It's a hot day today. (It is a hot day today.)
The company is anticipating its third quarter profits.

Which sentence is correct?

1. Its his fault why the team lost the game.
2. It's his fault why the team lost the game.

Where is the Pronoun Antecedent?

Look at this sentence:

Sr. Leni is Gabo's Religion teacher, and the conference was part of the preparation for his first communion.

Notice the 'his' in bold font. We call that a pronoun, and a pronoun replaces a noun. So we look back in the sentence and look for that noun that the pronoun 'his' replaces. Can you find it?

We sure can find many nouns before the 'his.' There are six nouns before 'his' - Sr. Leni, Religion, teacher, conference, part, preparation. Can 'his' replace any of these nouns? I don't think so.

The only noun that 'his' can replace in that sentence would have been 'Gabo.' But the form of 'Gabo' is not a noun, it's in the possessive, Gabo's, so that doesn't count.

In other words, the pronoun 'his' has no antecedent in this sentence. The sentence should be:

Sr. Leni is Gabo's Religion teacher, and the conference was part of the preparation for Gabo's first communion.