Who Is "They"? Pronoun Traps in TOEIC Reading Comprehension

You're seventy-five minutes in. Part 7 has been long and the email you're reading is even longer — a chain about a delayed shipment, with a customer, a sales rep, a logistics manager, and a vague "the team." You finally reach the question:

"The word they in paragraph 3, line 4, refers to:"

A) the customers B) the warehouse staff C) the regional managers D) the delivery drivers

You glance at line 4. You see "they." You glance one line up and spot "regional managers." That was easy. You click C and move on.

Two minutes later, on the next question, you realize the regional managers weren't actually the subject of the previous sentence — they were just mentioned in passing. The real antecedent was three sentences above, in the part of the email you skimmed. You can feel the point slip.

Pronoun-reference questions are not vocabulary questions. They are not even really comprehension questions. They are quiet little grammar puzzles about who controls the subject of a passage at any given moment. Here are the four traps that decide who wins them.

Where This Shows Up on TOEIC Listening and Reading

Pronoun-reference questions live in Part 7: Reading Comprehension. They appear in both Single Passages sets — where the antecedent is somewhere in the same email, article, or notice — and in Multiple Passages sets, where the antecedent might live in a different document altogether. The cross-passage version is the hardest, because the pronoun and its antecedent can be separated by an entire second page of text.

You'll also sometimes feel pronouns in Part 6: Text Completion — a candidate sentence with a vague "she" or "it" can be the wrong answer because the reference breaks. But the formal "the word X refers to" question is a Part 7 staple.

Trap 1: The Obvious-But-Wrong Candidate

Here's the trick. The wrong answer is almost always a noun that appears right before the pronoun. The right answer is the noun that controls the subject continuity of the paragraph.

Example:

The marketing department met with the regional managers on Tuesday. After several hours of discussion, they approved the new advertising campaign.

Quick reflex: "regional managers" comes right before "they." Pick that. But who would actually approve a marketing campaign — the marketing department, or the regional managers visiting them? In business context, both are possible. So the test asks: who has been the subject of the paragraph?

If the prior paragraph has been describing the marketing department's planning process, "they" almost certainly refers to the marketing department, even though "regional managers" is closer. Proximity is bait. Subject continuity is the answer.

When you see a "refers to" question, don't just look at the previous noun. Scan backward to find which noun has been driving the verbs in the paragraph. That's your antecedent.

Trap 2: Singular "They" with Customer / Employee / Applicant

Modern business writing uses singular they all the time, especially in HR memos, customer service replies, and policy documents. TOEIC has caught up with this. So you'll see:

If a customer requests a refund, they should receive a response within 24 hours.

The antecedent is "a customer" — singular. The pronoun is "they" — grammatically plural-looking but referring to one person. Test-takers who learned a rigid pronoun rule sometimes reject this and look for a plural noun elsewhere in the passage, falling into a trap answer like "all customers" or "the staff."

The fix: when the question is about "they" and the surrounding sentence contains a generic singular like a customer, an employee, an applicant, a visitor, a guest, that singular noun is almost always the antecedent. Don't overthink it.

Trap 3: Cross-Passage Pronouns in Multiple Passages

This is the brutal one. In Multiple Passages sets, you might read two or three connected documents — for example, an email from a customer, a reply from a sales rep, and an internal memo. The pronoun is in document two. The antecedent is in document one.

Example structure:

Email 1 (from Maya Chen, customer): "I ordered three units of the X400 printer on March 5. The order has not yet arrived..."

Email 2 (reply from sales rep): "Dear Ms. Chen, thank you for letting us know. They are scheduled to ship today and should arrive by Friday."

The question: "The word they in the reply refers to:"

If you only read the reply, "they" looks orphaned — there's no plural noun in that email. You have to jump back to Email 1 and find "three units of the X400 printer." That's the antecedent, sitting on the previous page.

The trap is that the answer choices will offer plausible nouns from the reply email itself — "the customer service team," "the sales managers" — and one of those will catch you if you don't cross-reference.

Survival tip: in Multiple Passages sets, when you see a pronoun question, always check the other passage(s) before locking in.

Trap 4: "It" Referring to a Whole Clause

The final trap involves the word it, which can refer to a noun or to an entire situation, idea, or clause. TOEIC loves to test the second case.

Example:

The proposal includes a flexible work schedule, expanded parental leave, and a four-day pilot week. The board has not yet approved it.

What does "it" refer to? Not the schedule, not the leave, not the week. It refers to the proposal as a whole. The answer choice will read something like "the proposal" or "the policy change" — not any of the three components.

Another version:

The team finished the audit two weeks ahead of schedule. Management was impressed by it.

Here, "it" doesn't refer to the audit — it refers to the fact that the team finished early. The answer might read "the team's early completion of the audit" or "the on-time delivery."

When you see "it" and the answer choices include both a concrete noun and an abstract phrase like "the situation" or "the early completion," prefer the abstract phrase if the surrounding sentence is reacting to a fact rather than a thing.

Wrong / Better / Why

Test-Day Strategy

Part 7 runs at about one minute per item on average, and there is no replay or audio — you control the pace. For pronoun-reference questions, budget about 45 seconds. They are usually faster than detail or inference questions, so this buys you a small surplus elsewhere.

When you reach a "the word X refers to" item, do this. First, locate the exact line in the passage. Second, scan backward in the same paragraph for the noun that has been driving the verbs. Third, if you find nothing convincing in the same paragraph, scan the previous paragraph — or, in a Multiple Passages set, the previous document. Fourth, check whether "it" might be referring to a clause rather than a noun. Fifth, eliminate any choice that is just the nearest noun without subject continuity.

Pre-reading helps. Before you read a long passage, glance at the questions. If you see a pronoun question, mentally flag the line and pay attention to subject continuity as you read.

Quick Check

1. From a single email: "Our team met with the new vendors last week. After reviewing their proposal, they decided to extend the trial period by 30 days."

The word they refers to:

A) the new vendors B) our team C) the proposal reviewers D) the executives

2. From a customer service reply: "If an applicant submits documents after the deadline, they will receive a notification within two business days."

The word they refers to:

A) all applicants B) the documents C) an applicant D) the staff

3. From a two-passage set (email + memo):

Email: "I placed an order for twelve office chairs on April 2." Memo: "They are now in stock and will be shipped this week."

The word they refers to:

A) the office staff B) the warehouse team C) the customers D) the office chairs

Answer key:
1. B — our team is the paragraph's subject ("Our team met... after reviewing their proposal, they decided"); "new vendors" is bait by proximity.
2. C — singular "an applicant" is the antecedent; "they" is the modern singular pronoun.
3. D — cross-passage reference; the antecedent is in the email, not the memo.

Recap

• Pronoun-reference questions test subject continuity, not proximity.
• Singular "they" with a generic singular noun is correct and tested.
• In Multiple Passages sets, the antecedent often lives in a different document.
• "It" can refer to a whole situation, fact, or proposal — not just a nearby noun.

Want to drill pronoun traps under real Part 7 timing? Practice with ExamRift's TOEIC Listening and Reading sets at https://examrift.com and start catching the antecedent on the first read.