SAT Reading & Writing: Pronoun Ambiguity
22+ practice questions in Praczo
The concept, explained
- 1
A pronoun (he, she, it, they, this, over there) must clearly refer to a specific, identifiable preceding noun (its antecedent).
- 2
If a sentence has two plural nouns and then uses "they," and it is unclear which noun "they" refers to, the sentence is ambiguous.
- 3
To fix pronoun ambiguity, replace the ambiguous pronoun with the specific noun it is meant to represent, even if it feels repetitive.
- 4
Avoid vague "this" or "that" as the subject of a sentence ("This means that..."). It is clearer to add a noun ("This statistic means that...").
- 5
The SAT strongly prefers clarity over succinctness if succinctness causes ambiguity.
- ✗ Keeping the pronoun because repeating the noun feels "clunky" or "wordy," thereby failing to fix the ambiguity.
- ✗ Trusting the reader to guess based on context rather than ensuring grammatical precision.
SAT-style practice
When the technicians connected the new monitors to the old computers, they short-circuited.
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