Question

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What makes the following sentence unclear?
I had hoped to finish the race and win a medal, but I didn’t.

Nothing. The sentence contains no errors.

There are two possible meanings to the last part of the sentence.

It’s a simple sentence and doesn’t need a comma.

It is an incomplete sentence and therefore a fragment.

Answer 1

"There are two possible meanings to the last part of the sentence."

The pronoun "didn't" is ambiguous — it could negate either "finish the race" or "win a medal." To remove the ambiguity, restate the intended meaning:

- If you meant you failed to finish the race: "I had hoped to finish the race and win a medal, but I didn’t finish the race."
- If you meant you finished the race but didn’t win a medal: "I had hoped to finish the race and win a medal, but I didn’t win a medal."