Which sentence has an ambiguous pronoun reference?

Which sentence has an ambiguous pronoun reference?

• A. When Michelle spoke to Sara, she smiled.
• B. When Sara spoke to Michelle, he smiled.
• C. When the teacher spoke to the student, they smiled.
• D. When the coach spoke to the players, they celebrated.

Answer: (A)

When a pronoun, like she, must point to a single, clear noun in the sentence, the sentence stays easy to read. If two people could be the referent, the pronoun becomes ambiguous. In this sentence, the pronoun she could refer to either Michelle or Sara. Since both are mentioned and there’s no extra clue to tell us which woman smiled, the reference isn’t definite. That lack of clarity is what makes it ambiguous. To fix it, you’d need to make clear who smiled—for example, rewrite to say “When Michelle spoke to Sara, Michelle smiled” or “When Michelle spoke to Sara, Sara smiled.” The other options involve different issues. The second uses he, which doesn’t match any male antecedent in the sentence and reads as a pronoun-antecedent mismatch rather than a true ambiguity. The third sentence can be read as referring to either the teacher or the student (or both), but it’s less about a single unclear antecedent and more about who is being described as smiling, so it isn’t the same kind of ambiguity as the first.

When a pronoun, like she, must point to a single, clear noun in the sentence, the sentence stays easy to read. If two people could be the referent, the pronoun becomes ambiguous.

In this sentence, the pronoun she could refer to either Michelle or Sara. Since both are mentioned and there’s no extra clue to tell us which woman smiled, the reference isn’t definite. That lack of clarity is what makes it ambiguous.

To fix it, you’d need to make clear who smiled—for example, rewrite to say “When Michelle spoke to Sara, Michelle smiled” or “When Michelle spoke to Sara, Sara smiled.”

The other options involve different issues. The second uses he, which doesn’t match any male antecedent in the sentence and reads as a pronoun-antecedent mismatch rather than a true ambiguity. The third sentence can be read as referring to either the teacher or the student (or both), but it’s less about a single unclear antecedent and more about who is being described as smiling, so it isn’t the same kind of ambiguity as the first.