What is an antecedent?

In grammar, the term antecedent means a word or phrase that is referred back to by another word or phrase. It’s most commonly used in the context of pronouns. Pronoun-antecedent agreement is an important concept.

For example, in the sentence “Jamie is here, and he wants to talk to you,” the pronoun “he” refers back to the antecedent “Jamie.” It “agrees” with Jamie because it’s singular (Jamie is one person), masculine (Jamie is a man), and third-person (the speaker is talking about Jamie, not directly to him).

Other types of words and phrases can also have antecedents. For example, the antecedent of an appositive is the noun phrase it is placed in apposition with, and the antecedent of a possessive determiner is the person or thing whose possession it describes.