Question
Which sentence includes an unclear pronoun that should be corrected?
Jamal and his cousin left at the same time, but she reached the park before he did.
If you set the plant on the shelf over the fireplace, it might fall off the wall and break.
And explain why the one answer is clear and why the wrong one isn’t clear
Jamal and his cousin left at the same time, but she reached the park before he did.
If you set the plant on the shelf over the fireplace, it might fall off the wall and break.
And explain why the one answer is clear and why the wrong one isn’t clear
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The sentence that includes an unclear pronoun is:
**"Jamal and his cousin left at the same time, but she reached the park before he did."**
In this sentence, the pronoun "she" is unclear because it could refer to either Jamal or his cousin, leading to ambiguity about who reached the park first. The reader cannot determine which person the pronoun is referring to without additional context.
On the other hand, the sentence:
**"If you set the plant on the shelf over the fireplace, it might fall off the wall and break."**
is clear because the pronoun "it" clearly refers to "the plant." The context of the sentence makes it clear that "it" is the plant being discussed, eliminating any ambiguity.
To correct the ambiguous sentence, you could specify who "she" refers to, for example:
**"Jamal and his cousin left at the same time, but Jamal's cousin reached the park before he did."**
This revision removes the ambiguity by explicitly naming the person.
**"Jamal and his cousin left at the same time, but she reached the park before he did."**
In this sentence, the pronoun "she" is unclear because it could refer to either Jamal or his cousin, leading to ambiguity about who reached the park first. The reader cannot determine which person the pronoun is referring to without additional context.
On the other hand, the sentence:
**"If you set the plant on the shelf over the fireplace, it might fall off the wall and break."**
is clear because the pronoun "it" clearly refers to "the plant." The context of the sentence makes it clear that "it" is the plant being discussed, eliminating any ambiguity.
To correct the ambiguous sentence, you could specify who "she" refers to, for example:
**"Jamal and his cousin left at the same time, but Jamal's cousin reached the park before he did."**
This revision removes the ambiguity by explicitly naming the person.