Why I Don’t Like Pronouns

I mentioned this several times in the past. Pronouns are tricky because figuring out the antecedent can be tricky. (The antecedent is the word the pronoun refers to.) And that trickiness is the basis of the humor in this Grizzwells comic:

The writing rule: Avoid pronouns whenever you can.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Remember, folks, this site is not about politics. I ran into a sentence in a political context, though, that is such an excellent example of why I recommend against pronouns, that I have to quote it.

“The president believes in making sure that information is accurate before pushing it out as fact, when it certainly and clearly is not.”

What does that second “it” refer to? I predict that people will choose the antecedent based on their politics. And well they might. The sentence is not a good one, semantically speaking. It is hard to tell what the sentence literally means.

The rule with pronouns is that they should refer to the closest noun. This rule is so easy to break that ambiguity often results, and that’s the case here, and ambiguity is not something you want in a contentious environment.

I think this is what the speaker intended to mean (edited to remove ambiguity):

“The president believes in making sure that information is accurate before pushing [the information] out as fact, [especially] when the [so-called] information certainly and clearly is not accurate [to start with].”

Here’s what the grammar says:

“The president believes in making sure that information is accurate before pushing [the information] out as fact, when the [claimed] fact certainly and clearly is not accurate.”

I think That’s what was meant. Hard to tell. The second version is self-contradictory. Don’t jump all over me if you think I got it wrong, but feel free to put your own translation in the comments.

The rule: avoid pronouns. Say exactly what you mean.

Pronouns are tricky because sometimes you can’t tell what the pronoun refers to (called an antecedent, by the way). This is sometimes a source of humor in grammar textbooks, but occasionally this weakness turns up in the comics, too. I ran into a humorous take on missed antecedents in this Luann:

Pronouns often refer to something else, and it the pronoun doesn’t tell you what that something is. You have to figure it out yourself what the pronoun refers to. Therefore, when you write, make sure this task your reader’s task is easy!

Here’s a Pickles comic:

(We’ll skip that it should be “whom” he goes to)

What does “them” refer to? The rule is that a pronoun refers to the closest noun (called its the pronoun’s antecedent, by the way). So the kid’s misunderstanding is legitimate. It’s The strip is funny because we already know about getting glasses adjusted, but suppose you are explaining something serious—a repair process, something involving safety, a science experiment, a contract. You want to be sure your reader understands it your exact meaning.

Sometimes you might feel as if it’s you’re being repetitious, but it’s repeating the noun is a good way to prevent mishaps.

Get it?

Pronouns often refer to a word that occurs earlier in the text. Often, however, a sentence can have more than one candidate for that pronoun to refer to. The rule is that the pronoun should refer to the closest candidate, (called the antecedent, by the way). We tend to unconsciously follow that rule when we read something, and breaking the rule can cause the unexpectedness that we often regard as humor.

Shoe is a pretty good strip even when I can’t make it into a grammar lesson, but here’s one that I can.

I’d have squirted the dog, though. But then, I’m not very funny.