Pronouns: Where Art Thou?

In our second installment of the pronouns series, we’ll look at ambiguous pronouns.

Pronoun (and noun), where art thou?

The SAT also tests ambiguous pronouns. Those are pronouns that are either unclear or refer to someone or something not specified in the sentence.

What does that look like? Here’s an example from Erica Meltzer’s The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar.

“Afraid that they would be late to the party, Rosa and Caroline decided to take her car rather than walk.”

Are there any pronouns?
Yes. “They” and “her” are pronouns.
To whom or what are they referring?
“They” clearly refers to Rosa and Caroline. But to whom does “her” refer? It could be either Rosa or Caroline.
Fix the problem
We need to get rid of the ambiguous pronoun and clearly state what happened: “…Rosa and Caroline decided to take Rosa’s car..”

Here’s another example, again from Erica’s book.

“Because of extreme weather conditions, starvation exists in some countries, and they must struggle to stay alive.”

Are there any pronouns?
Yes, “they” is a pronoun.
To whom or what are they referring?
Hmm. It looks like “they” is referring to “countries” but that doesn’t make sense. It must be referring to something that isn’t written in the sentence – “the inhabitants.”
Fix the problem
Pronouns have to refer to a stated noun in the sentence. So we need to get rid of “they” and state the noun: “..starvation exists in some countries, and the inhabitants must struggle to stay alive.”