Grammar Practice


Language Standard 3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how
language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for
meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or
listening.
Objective:

TSW be able to define and identify pronoun antecedents and ambiguous pronouns.
 TSW edit sentences with ambiguous pronouns to be more clear.
Literature
Standard
“The Yellow
L3
Wallpaper” by
Charlotte
Perkins
Gilman
Date Taught
Date Tested
EOC:
Tuesday May
13th 2014

A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. A
pronoun REPLACES another word.


First person point of view examples: I, me, we, our, mine
Second person point of view examples: you, yours, y’all,
Third person point of view examples: he, she, it, they, them,
their, her, him, theirs, its

A pronoun antecedent is what the pronoun REPLACES.
1.
2.
3.
Somebody has left their bag on the floor.
The person who stole the wheels off of my
car should have to personally pay for the
damage.
Tell Samuel I dig his kicks.


Look at this sentence:
The friendship between Robert and Blake
dissolved when he moved.
▪ What is the pronoun?
▪ What is the pronoun antecedent?

am·big·u·ous


amˈbigyo͞oəs/
Adjective

1. (of language) open to more than one
interpretation; having a double meaning.
Ex. The question is rather ambiguous.
Ex. Her tone of voice was ambiguous; I
couldn’t tell if she was being serious or
sarcastic.



Jessica met with Susie after she had lunch.

You might read this sentence and automatically correct the pronoun ambiguity.
For some reason, you might think that Jessica had the lunch. Some of you might
think Susie had the lunch. The truth is, there is no way of knowing. The pronoun
“she” is ambiguous because it has no clear antecedent: it can refer to either
Jessica or Susie.

How do we fix this problem? Simple. Just replace the ambiguous pronoun with
the noun it should refer to. Let’s say the author meant for “she” to refer to
Jessica:

Jessica met with Susie after Jessica had lunch.

Jessica was running around all day trying to
finish her errands. She knew she was
supposed to meet Sarah at some point, but
Jessica had a million things to do. Finally, a
decision was made and she met her after
lunch.

Use context clues and fix the ambiguous
pronoun on your own paper.

Individual Work: Complete the worksheet on
your own.

Group Work: Get with your baseball groups
and check your answers.
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Class Check. All together now!

Standards:
 RL 1: Cite evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining
where the text leaves matters uncertain.
 RL 3: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to
develop and relate elements of a story.
Objectives: TSW analyze the use of 1st person pronouns and how they
affect the reliability of the narrator.
Literature
Standards
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
RL1
RL3
Date Taught
Date Tested
TBA
A story’s narrator-the character or voice that
relates the events to the reader- can have a
marked effect on how you perceive the events
of the story.
What is the difference between a reliable
narrator and an unreliable narrator?


Reliable Narrator: The audience can trust that
everything the narrator says is true and really
happening.
Unreliable Narrator: The audience CANNOT
trust what the narrator is saying. They have
to decipher and infer for themselves what is
true.

Make a chart like the one below. Fill it out as
we read. Find at least 5 examples.
Reliable or unreliable? Cite
evidence from the text.
Explain evidence
1. Unreliable: “I’m sure I
never used to be so
sensitive. I think it is due
to this nervous condition”
(Gilman 800)
The narrator is admitting that
she has some kind of
‘condition’ that makes her
insensible. That makes me
think that she may be slightly
crazy.
2.
The narrator of this story is unreliable- you
can’t always trust that what she says is accurate
or complete.
How does her highly subjective account
contribute to your perception of her character’s
internal development? Cite evidence from the
story to support your answer.
Subjective: based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
Perception: the way you think about or understand someone or something

We know this short story is written in the first
person point of view because of the use of
first person pronouns. (I, me, mine)

. Which answer choice corrects the ambiguous
pronoun in the following sentence?
Pull the chair away from the wall and then repaint it.
a. Paint the chair after you pull it way from the
wall.
b. Pull the chair away from the wall and then
repaint them.
c. Pull the chair away from the wall and then
repaint the wall.
d. All correct.
2. When I took my dad to the hospital, it was
discovered that he had broken his collarbone,
A
Which they said would take six weeks to heal.
B
C
No error
D
A manatee differs from the dugong in both size
A
and shape; the most noticeable difference is the
B
dugong’s tail, which is forked, unlike their
C
D
paddle-shaped tail. No error
E