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Simple fix for pronoun ambiguity on GMAT sentence correction questionsPronouns are among the most commonly-tested points of English grammar you’ll see on GMAT sentence correction questions. In fact, I tell my students that any time they see a pronoun in the underlined portion of the sentence, they should immediately stop and ask themselves the following questions:

  1. Does the pronoun agree in number (singular or plural) with the noun it’s referring to?
  2. Does the pronoun’s case (subject, object, or possessive) agree with the noun it’s referring to?
  3. Does the pronoun unambiguously refer to a clear, very specific preceding noun (antecedent)?

I cover the rules for each of these in detail in our GMAT Sentence Correction lessons, but I read something in Wired magazine over the weekend that illustrates #3 and I wanted to share it with you as an example of what not to do in your own writing — and how to easily fix it in the event you see this type of error on the GMAT verbal section. It’s amazing how even well-regarded professional publications with a bevy of editors whose job it is to scrutinize copy for these types of errors still get it wrong from time to time.

Anyway, I was reading an article titled “End Game” from the November issue when I came across the following passage:

Though the Wichita City Hall closes at 5pm on weekdays, a civilian employee of the police department works the night shift to field whatever calls come into the building. The one he received at 6:10pm on December 28 came from a soft-spoken man who he thought said something about his mother hitting his father with a gun. The employee tried to transfer the call to 911, but the connection got lost in the process.

Do you notice anything wrong with that paragraph?

Pretend it were a GMAT sentence correction sentence with the entire thing underlined (obviously this paragraph has multiple sentences, whereas SC’s are only one sentence long, but stick with me here). How about now?

Obviously this post is about pronouns, so let’s start there. Let’s highlight each of the pronouns in the passage and evaluate them one-by-one.

Though the Wichita City Hall closes at 5pm on weekdays, a civilian employee of the police department works the night shift to field whatever calls come into the building. The one (1) he received at 6:10pm on December 28 came from a soft-spoken man who (2) he thought said something about (3) his mother hitting (4) his father with a gun. The employee tried to transfer the call to 911, but the connection got lost in the process.

(1) This is the first time he appears, and it clearly refers to the civilian employee mentioned in the previous sentence. No ambiguity about who he is referring to, so we’re good there. Moreover, civilian employee is singular, so he is the correct number (singular). No error.

(2) Uh-oh. Who does he refer to? A second possible subject has been introduced, the soft-spoken man. And in fact, the soft-spoken man comes immediately before he, so it reads as if he is in fact referring to the soft-spoken man. But that doesn’t really make sense in context. It would make more sense for he to be referring back to the civilian employee, who is interpreting what the soft-spoken man said. But it’s not clear that that’s the case based on how the sentence is currently written. There’s ambiguity, and it needs to be resolved.

EASY FIX: Whenever there’s pronoun ambiguity in a sentence and it’s unclear which of two (or more) possible subjects the pronoun is referring to, the simplest fix is to simply restate the correct subject rather than using a pronoun.

If we make that correction, the sentence would now read:

Though the Wichita City Hall closes at 5pm on weekdays, a civilian employee of the police department works the night shift to field whatever calls come into the building. The one he received at 6:10pm on December 28 came from a soft-spoken man who the employee thought said something about his mother hitting his father with a gun. The employee tried to transfer the call to 911, but the connection got lost in the process.

Do you see how much clearer that is now? And in fact, once that correction has been made, pronouns #3 and #4 work much better as well.

(3) It’s clear that his refers to the soft-spoken man. It’s obviously the soft-spoken man’s mother we’re talking about. And his agrees in number (singular) with the soft-spoken man. No error.

(4) Likewise, it’s also the soft-spoken man that his refers to when talking about whose father it was. No error.

One of the hardest things about GMAT pronoun errors is that they often sound okay. That’s why it’s important not to trust your ear too much on the GMAT. Instead, you need a set of rules that you can filter points of grammar through. When it comes to pronouns, you now have three tests you can perform — and specifically remember to make sure there’s no ambiguity with respect to the antecedent the pronoun is referring to. If there is, look for an answer choice that makes the simple fix just explained.

Questions? Comments? I’d love to know what you found most helpful here. Or, if somethings still unclear, please post your questions below as well. We’re here to help!