![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/07\/pronoun-ambiguity-on-the-gmat-chelsey-cooley.png\")
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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/i><\/b>What\u2019s the deal with pronoun ambiguity on the GMAT?<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, this question doesn\u2019t have a short answer. Pronoun ambiguity is one area in which the rules of GMAT Sentence Correction are actually a little\u2026 <\/span>ambiguous<\/span><\/i>. (Sorry!) This article will describe what we know about the rules, and, more importantly, how you can use them to gain points on Sentence Correction. <\/span><\/p>\n Pronoun ambiguity is a type of grammar error. In English grammar, every pronoun has to \u201cstand in for\u201d a noun. On GMAT Sentence Correction, that noun always has to appear <\/span>elsewhere in the sentence<\/span><\/i>. You should be able to replace the pronoun with the noun it stands for, and the sentence should still make logical sense. <\/span><\/p>\n The student<\/b> earned a 780 on the GMAT, because <\/span>he<\/b> studied. <\/span><\/p>\n The student<\/b> earned a 780 on the GMAT, because <\/span>the student<\/b> studied.<\/span><\/p>\n We say that a pronoun is \u201cambiguous\u201d if you can\u2019t tell <\/span>which<\/span><\/i> noun it\u2019s supposed to stand in for. For instance, this sentence has an ambiguous pronoun:<\/span><\/p>\n Silvia<\/b> and <\/span>Camila<\/b> went to the movies, and <\/span>she<\/b> bought a box of popcorn.<\/span><\/p>\n But, as it often does, the GMAT likes to make things more complicated than that.<\/span><\/p>\n When you listen to or read a sentence in real life, your brain tries to give that sentence the benefit of the doubt. You <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to understand what the sentence is communicating. So, even if the sentence is technically a little bit ambiguous, you normally don\u2019t even notice that ambiguity. Instead, you ignore the ambiguity, and focus on what the speaker or writer is <\/span>trying<\/span><\/i> to say. <\/span><\/p>\n For example, is the pronoun in this sentence ambiguous?<\/span><\/p>\n The book sitting on the counter will be sold at a discount, because somebody tore<\/span> its <\/b>cover. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course not! This sentence is completely unambiguous and completely correct. You know that <\/span>its<\/span><\/i> stands in for \u201cthe book,\u201d not \u201cthe counter.\u201d In the real world, you can figure that out easily because books have covers, but counters don\u2019t. That\u2019s real-world knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the problem: in the real world, we use real-world knowledge to figure out what a pronoun stands for. And GMAT Sentence Correction doesn\u2019t test real-world knowledge. However, the GMAT also doesn\u2019t want you to eliminate simple, correct sentences like the one about the book and the counter. It would be ridiculous for them to claim that the sentence above was wrong, even though you need real-world knowledge to understand it! <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example of a <\/span>correct<\/b> answer from a GMAT Sentence Correction problem:<\/span><\/p>\n A recording system was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy Oval Office that even Theodore C. Sorensen, the White House counsel, did not know <\/span>it<\/b> existed.<\/span><\/p>\n Like the previous sentence, this one has an \u201cambiguous\u201d pronoun. When you read the sentence, real-world knowledge tells you that \u201cit\u201d stands in for \u201crecording system.\u201d However, it could <\/span>technically<\/span><\/i> stand for either \u201crecording system\u201d or \u201cKennedy Oval Office,\u201d since both of those are singular nouns. Despite that \u201cambiguity,\u201d this is the <\/span>correct<\/b> answer to this Sentence Correction problem. That tells us that the GMAT is okay with this type of \u201cambiguity.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n In short, <\/span>you can\u2019t eliminate an answer choice <\/b>just<\/i><\/b> because there are two nouns that could technically match the pronoun<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n Nonetheless, the GMAT does sometimes test pronoun ambiguity. Check out Sentence Correction problem #698 in the <\/span>2017 Official Guide to the GMAT<\/span><\/a>. The official explanation eliminates one answer choice that contains an ambiguous pronoun, and two others in which a pronoun \u201cseems to refer to\u201d the wrong noun. It\u2019s clear that the GMAT does sometimes expect you to eliminate sentences with ambiguous pronouns. How do you do it, without accidentally eliminating sentences that the GMAT thinks are right? <\/span><\/p>\n In short, pronoun ambiguity on the GMAT isn\u2019t usually a great reason to eliminate an answer choice. If you just want the actionable advice, that\u2019s all you need to know! However, if you\u2019re interested in a deeper dive into English grammar, stay tuned for the next article on this topic. We\u2019ll take a look at which nouns a pronoun can and can\u2019t stand in for, and what the GMAT really means when it says that a pronoun \u201cseems to refer to something.\u201d ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GMAT gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding. <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Chelsey Cooley<\/a> Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. What\u2019s the deal with pronoun ambiguity on the GMAT? Unfortunately, this question doesn\u2019t have a short answer. Pronoun ambiguity is one area in which the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,52871,930,2,26,10],"tags":[53123,53122],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-sentence-correction","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-pronoun-ambiguity","tag-pronoun-ambiguity-on-the-gmat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14397,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14312\/revisions\/14397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14312"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhat is pronoun ambiguity on the GMAT?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Why is pronoun ambiguity hard?<\/b><\/h4>\n
So, how do you handle pronoun ambiguity on the GMAT?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"Chelsey](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2015\/11\/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Chelsey")
<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/i><\/b>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master\u2019s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170\/170 on the GRE.\u00a0<\/em><\/i>Check out Chelsey\u2019s upcoming GRE prep offerings here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"