Question 205·Easy·Form, Structure, and Sense
Entrepreneurs often revise ______ business plans several times before seeking investors.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For questions that test commonly confused forms like "there/their/they're," first decide what role the missing word plays in the sentence: location or introductory word (there), contraction (they're), or possession (their/theirs). Substitute each option into the sentence and read it for meaning and grammar. Eliminate any choice that breaks the sentence structure or meaning, and remember that possessive determiners (like "their") must come directly before a noun, while possessive pronouns (like "theirs") usually stand alone.
Hints
Look at the noun after the blank
Notice that the word in the blank comes right before "business plans." Think about what kind of word usually appears before a noun to show a relationship like ownership.
Decide the needed part of speech
Ask yourself: Do we need a word about a place, a contraction of two words, or a word that shows whose business plans they are?
Test the choices in the sentence
Read the sentence out loud in your head with each option: "there business plans," "they're business plans," "theirs business plans," and "their business plans." Which one sounds grammatically correct in formal written English?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand what the blank is doing
Read the sentence with a placeholder:
Entrepreneurs often revise ______ business plans several times before seeking investors.
The word in the blank comes right before the noun "business plans" and tells us whose business plans they are. So we need a word that shows possession (ownership) and can directly modify a noun.
Identify the grammar role needed
A word that shows who owns something and comes directly before a noun (like "business plans") is a possessive determiner (often called a possessive adjective), such as "my," "your," or "her."
So we are looking for a form of "they" that can work like "my" before a noun: "____ business plans."
Classify each answer choice by its function
Go through the options and note what type of word each is:
- "there" is used for place or to introduce a sentence ("There is a problem").
- "they're" is a contraction of "they are."
- "theirs" is a possessive pronoun that stands alone ("The decision is theirs").
- "their" is a possessive form used directly before a noun (like "their idea").
Only one of these matches the role we identified in Step 2.
Choose the word that fits the sentence
We need a possessive form that can go right before the noun "business plans." From Step 3, that is "their", giving the sentence:
Entrepreneurs often revise their business plans several times before seeking investors.
This is grammatically correct and clearly shows that the plans belong to the entrepreneurs.