Identifying Vague Pronouns

What is a vague pronoun?

• A blurry image

• A pronoun that is confusing because it could refer to more than one person or thing

• A word that takes the place of a noun

• An adjective

Which of the sentences below contains a vague pronoun?

• Mom and Lauren ate dinner together.

• Mom gave Lauren her dinner.

• Mom ate Lauren's dinner.

• Mom and Lauren love Mexican food.

How would you correct the below sentence to fix the vague pronoun without changing the meaning of the sentence?

• Julie handed her cell phone to Emily so that Emily could make the call.

• Julie gave Emily her cell phone.

• Emily gave her cell phone to Julia.

• Julia called Emily.

Which choice best fixes the vague pronoun issue in the sentence below without changing the sentence's meaning?

• Keagan didn't write a paper.

• Keagan's paper showed little revision between drafts, and this lack of effort lowered his grade.

• Keagan's paper showed little revision. This was bad for his grade.

• Keagan's paper showed little revision, which this was not good.

Which has a vague pronoun.

• Amanda took her mother and three couisins to a second hand store to nuy gifts.

• If you look carefully you can see when the magician puts the card up his sleeve.

• Will you take me to your leader?

• As Joe was talking to Sam, he started to cry.

Which sentence contains a vague pronoun?

• As Joe was talking to Sam, Sam started to cry

• As Joe was talking to Sam, he started to cry.

Which sentence does not contain a vague pronoun?

• As Joe was talking to Sam, he started to cry.

• As Joe was talking to Sam, Sam started to cry

Which of the below sentences contains the vague pronoun?

• Despite the heat wave, they say that Seattle is a cool city.

• Despite the heat wave, the travel brochures say that Seattle is a cool city.

Which of the below sentences contains a vague pronoun?

• In the first grade, they learn to read

• In the first grade, students learn to read

Which contains a vague pronoun reference?

• In California, you can go surfing.

• In California, people can go surfing