You rewite the sentence so that only one antecedent precedes the pronoun, or change it to eliminate the dichotomy.
Example:
Bill went with John to his father's store. (vague)
Bill went to his father's store with John.
Bill and John went to the store owned by Bill's father.
Vague pronouns become a problem when multiple sentences contain pronouns, or when there is pronoun confusion within a sentence.
Multiple sentences
Example of all pronouns: (Who is doing the actions in each sentence? Can you tell?)
He gave her his lunch. She thought he was nice and told her friends. One friend thought he was sweet to give her his lunch. She told her other friends.
Corrected for vague pronouns:
John gave Sally his lunch. She thought John was nice and told her friends. One friend, Cindy, thought John was sweet to give Sally his lunch. Cindy told her other friends.
An example of pronoun confusion also exists in the above example, where it says: One friend thought he was sweet to give her his lunch. She told her other friends. -- You can't tell WHO is meant by 'her' and by 'she', but when you put names in appropriate places, there is no pronoun confusion.
Single sentence
Vague pronouns can also be a problem in single sentences with more than one noun to which the pronoun could apply. You can rewite the sentence several ways.
Example:
Bill went with John to his father's store. (vague)
Bill went to his father's store with John.
Bill and John went to the store owned by Bill's father.
A vague pronoun reference can be eliminated by rewording the sentence.
Example:
Jane and her friend Joan visited her grandmother. (Whose grandmother is it, Jane's or Joan's?)
Reworded:
Jane visited her grandmother with her friend Joan.
There are no vague (indefinite) pronouns in the sentence. There is only one pronoun in the sentence, it, which is a personal pronoun, representing the noun antecedent car.
Pronouns that refer mostly to people are called personal pronouns. Some personal pronouns include I, me, you, him, her, she, them, he, and they.
Object pronouns are the pronouns that can only be used as the direct object or an indirect object of a sentence or phrase. The direct object pronouns are pronouns that are being used as the direct object of a sentence.The object pronouns are me, him, her, us, them, whom, whomever.There are some pronouns that can be subject or object pronouns; they are you, it, which, that, what, everybody.
Object pronouns take the place of a noun as the object of a sentence or phrase. Some objective pronouns are me, us, him, her, and them. Some objective pronouns are used for both subject and object, they are youand it.
There are no pronouns that end with -as.
There are no vague (indefinite) pronouns in the sentence. There is only one pronoun in the sentence, it, which is a personal pronoun, representing the noun antecedent car.
The "clarifying vague pronouns mastery test" likely refers to an assessment designed to evaluate a person's ability to identify and correct sentences with unclear or ambiguous pronoun references. This test can help individuals improve their writing and communication skills by ensuring pronouns clearly refer to their intended antecedents.
This question is too vague. More information is needed.
There is no vague pronoun reference in that sentence.The pronouns in the sentence are:which - a relative pronoun that introduces the relative clause;their - a possessive adjective 'their' refers back to 'girls'.
Prior knowledge, pen and paper, and a calculator. Quite a vague question, but that should help...
Different queries require different methods for their solution. The question is too vague to be answered here.
Different queries require different methods for their solution. The question is too vague to be answered here.
The pronouns in the sentence are: most, that, and who.None of these have a vague pronoun reference. The reference for each of these pronouns are:most - an indefinite pronoun that takes the place of a noun for an exact number of students.that - a demonstrative pronoun which refers to 'classes' that are asynchronous.who - a relative pronoun that introduces a relative clause that gives information about its antecedent 'students'.
The most commonly used pronouns are:personal pronouns: I, you, we, he, she, it, me, us, him, her, they, them.adjective pronouns: my, your, his, her, their, its.interrogative pronouns: who, whom, what, which, whose.
The singular objective pronouns are "me," "him," "her," and "it." The plural objective pronouns are "us," "them," and "it."
The object pronouns are: me, us, him, her, and them.The pronouns you and it are both subject and object pronouns.
Pronouns that refer mostly to people are called personal pronouns. Some personal pronouns include I, me, you, him, her, she, them, he, and they.