CDS English · Sentence Rearrangement
He, she, it, they: a pronoun needs its noun first
A pronoun such as he, it or they stands for a noun already named. The sentence that names the person or thing must come before the sentence that uses the pronoun.
Why this matters
Pronouns are the most reliable clue in these passages, because a pronoun cannot point at something the reader has not met yet. The hard items put two people in one passage, so 'he' or 'she' seems to fit more than one place. The same rule covers 'the' before a noun: 'the committee' needs a committee named first.
Concept 1 of 2: A pronoun points back to a named noun
Read 'He wrote a letter' and you ask at once: who? The answer must already be on the page. So a sentence with a pronoun sits after the sentence that names its noun, usually right after it.
Definition
The terms:
- Pronoun: a short word that stands for a noun: he, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, its, their.
- Antecedent: the noun a pronoun stands for. It must come first.
- The former / the latter: the first and the second of two things just named.
The method:
- Circle every pronoun at the start of P, Q, R and S.
- For each one, find the noun it stands for: in S1, or in another middle sentence.
- If the noun is in another middle sentence, that sentence comes first, usually just before.
- When two people of the same kind are in the passage, ask who is acting in the sentence just before. The pronoun normally points to the person last named as the main actor.
- Check number: 'they' and 'their' need a plural noun; 'it' and 'its' need a singular one.
Worked example
S1: In 1952, a young doctor arrived at a small hospital in the hills.
P: She asked the old nurse, Meena, to show her the wards.
Q: Her name was Kavita Rao, and she had just finished her training.
R: Meena had worked there for twenty years and knew every patient by name.
S: Bed by bed, she told the doctor each patient's story, as she had heard it over those years.
S6: By evening, the young doctor felt she already knew the hospital well.
(a) QPRS (b) PQRS (c) QRPS (d) QPSR
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2024 · CDS (I) 2024 — English · Q37Moderate
Example 1 · Sentence Rearrangement · Pronouns and Names in Paragraphs
Directions: order P,Q,R,S between fixed first and sixth sentences
S1: One of the features of humanist culture in Italy was a slackening of the control of religion over human life.
S6: There was also a concern at this time with good manners.
P: Though they were not irreligious, Italians were strongly attracted to material wealth, power and glory.
Q: He wrote a pamphlet defending acquisition of wealth as a virtue.
R: In On Pleasure, Lorenzo Valla, another humanist, criticised the Christian injunction against pleasure.
S: Francesco Barbaro was a humanist from Venice.
Two people, one 'he'
When a passage has two men or two women, 'he' or 'she' can seem to fit either. Do not stop at 'a man is named somewhere'. Ask which person was acting in the sentence just before; that is the one the pronoun normally points to.
Ruling out a pronoun that points at S1
A middle sentence that starts with 'It' or 'They' can still come first, if S1 supplies the noun. Check S1 before you strike the sentence.
Wrong number
'They' cannot point at a single thing, and 'it' cannot point at a group of people. If the only noun that fits in number sits in one sentence, the pronoun sentence goes after that one.
Concept 2 of 2: Name a thing before 'the' or 'its' points at it
Writers bring a thing in first ('a committee', 'set up a scheme', 'a fort known as Red Fort'), and only then call it 'the committee' or 'its report'. So a sentence that says 'the X' as if you already know X must come after the sentence that introduces X.
Definition
The terms:
- Introducing mention: the first time a thing appears, often with a or an, a full name, or a verb like set up, founded, called.
- Later mention: the same thing again, with the, its, their, or a shorter name.
The method:
- Look for 'the X' or 'its X' where X has not appeared in S1.
- Find the sentence that introduces X. It must come before the later mention.
- If two sentences both mention X, the one that introduces it comes first.
- If S1 already names X, a 'the X' sentence may follow S1 directly.
Worked example
S1: Every October, the city of Mysuru celebrates Dasara.
P: For nine nights, the palace is lit with nearly a hundred thousand bulbs.
Q: On the tenth day comes the grand procession.
R: It is led by an elephant carrying a golden howdah.
S: The procession's route, about five kilometres long, is lined with crowds by dawn.
S6: For many visitors, that morning is the high point of the year.
(a) PQRS (b) PSQR (c) QRPS (d) SPQR
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2026 · CDS (I) 2026 — English · Q35Hard
Example 2 · Sentence Rearrangement · Pronouns and Names in Paragraphs
Directions: In this section each item consists of six sentences that comprise a passage. The first and sixth sentences are given in the beginning as S1 and S6. The sequence of the four sentences in the middle, labelled as P, Q, R and S, has been jumbled. You are required to find the proper sequence of the four jumbled sentences and mark your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
S1: The Japanese empire was considered rich.
S6: Soon, other developments such as the increased use of money and the creation of a stock market in rice show that the economy was developing in new ways.
P: However, paying for these imports with gold and silver strained the economy and led the Tokugawa to put restrictions on the export of precious metals.
Q: Over time, the silk from Nishijin came to be known as the best in the world.
R: They also took steps to develop the silk industry in Nishijin in Kyoto so as to reduce imports.
S: This was because it imported luxury goods like silk from China and textiles from India.
Directions: In the following question, the first and the last sentences of the passage are numbered S1 and S6. The rest of the passage is split into four parts named P, Q, R and S. These four parts are not given in their proper order. Read the passage and find out which of the four combinations is correct.
'The' that looks harmless
'The ascension', 'The lists', 'The Department': these look like normal openings, but 'the' says the reader already knows the thing. Find the sentence that first brings it in, and put it earlier.
Two sentences about the same thing
When two sentences both mention the same thing, do not order them by topic. The one that introduces it ('set up a committee', 'known as', 'a new scheme') comes first; the one with 'the' or 'its' comes after.
Forgetting that S1 counts
If S1 already names the thing, a 'the X' sentence can come first. Check S1 before you rule a sentence out.
Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance
A revision cheat-sheet for the formulas and gotchas above. Click any concept name to jump back to its full explanation.
Watch out for (6)
- Two people, one 'he'→ A pronoun points back to a named noun
- Ruling out a pronoun that points at S1→ A pronoun points back to a named noun
- Wrong number→ A pronoun points back to a named noun
- 'The' that looks harmless→ Name a thing before 'the' or 'its' points at it
- Two sentences about the same thing→ Name a thing before 'the' or 'its' points at it
- Forgetting that S1 counts→ Name a thing before 'the' or 'its' points at it
Test yourself on Sentence Rearrangement
20 past CDS questions from this chapter, timed at 20 minutes and marked the way the exam marks it. You see your score and every answer the moment you finish. Free to start.