Grammar 101: Clearer Pronoun UsageSeptember 20th, 2012 by
Michael Kwan Let’s start with a simple definition. A “pronoun”
is a word that is taking the place of another noun or noun
phrase. I could say, “Tim fixes cars for a living and he is
really good at it.” There are two pronouns in that sentence:
“he” refers to Tim and “it” refers to fixing cars. Using
pronouns in this fashion is quite clear and there is virtually
no ambiguity. Who Is She? Now, consider this example: Julie and
Sarah met up at the mall, so she could give her some supplies
for next week. In this case, we do have some ambiguity, because
the pronoun isn’t used in the clearest fashion possible. We have
two people in this sentence–Julie and Sarah–but we can’t be sure
whether “she” is referring to Julie or to Sarah. Is Julie giving
the supplies to Sarah or is Sarah giving the supplies to Julie?
Because of this potential confusion, the sentence can be
rewritten in this way: “Julie met Sarah at the mall to give her
some supplies for next week.” Alt