In grammar, an antecedent is a word, phrase, or clause that gives meaning to a pronoun that typically follows it and replaces it. It establishes the meaning of a pronoun or other pro-form). For example, in the sentence "John arrived late because traffic held him up," the word "John" is the antecedent of the pronoun "him"). Antecedents are used to clarify what or who a pronoun is referring to in a sentence, and without one, a sentence may be incomplete or meaningless. The rules for using antecedents are simple: the antecedent and the pronoun it refers to must agree in number. So if the antecedent is singular, the pronoun must also be singular, and if it’s plural, the pronoun must be too. Antecedents may also be unclear when they occur far from the noun or phrase they refer to).