The company might lose ______ client and it would be her fault.

The company might lose ______ client and it would be her fault.

• A. his
• B. her
• C. our
• D. their

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is pronoun reference and ownership. The company is treated as a single entity, but in modern English we often refer to such entities with their as a gender-neutral possessive. So “their client” means the client owned or handled by the company. That fits smoothly with the second part, which says it would be her fault, pointing to a female person responsible within that context. Using a gendered possessive like his or her would imply a specific person’s ownership, which isn’t indicated here, and adjusting to our would shift ownership to the speaker’s group rather than the company. So the natural, fluent choice is their, giving a clear sense that the company as a whole is responsible for the client, and a particular female person could be at fault for the loss.

The main idea here is pronoun reference and ownership. The company is treated as a single entity, but in modern English we often refer to such entities with their as a gender-neutral possessive. So “their client” means the client owned or handled by the company. That fits smoothly with the second part, which says it would be her fault, pointing to a female person responsible within that context. Using a gendered possessive like his or her would imply a specific person’s ownership, which isn’t indicated here, and adjusting to our would shift ownership to the speaker’s group rather than the company. So the natural, fluent choice is their, giving a clear sense that the company as a whole is responsible for the client, and a particular female person could be at fault for the loss.