Identify the error in the sentence: 'When Sophia met Helen at the conference, she told her that her presentation had been chosen for an award.'
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. ambiguous pronoun reference
- Step 1: The sentence contains multiple female third-person singular pronouns ('she', 'her', 'her') following two female antecedents ('Sophia' and 'Helen'). It is impossible for the reader to determine who spoke and whose presentation was chosen, creating ambiguous pronoun reference. Answer: ambiguous pronoun reference. Why not the others: "faulty subject-verb agreement" occurs when a subject and verb disagree in number or grammatical person; "dangling modifier error" involves an introductory modifier that does not logically attach to the subject; "comma splice connection" joins two independent clauses using only a comma without coordinating conjunctions.
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