Ambiguity
Year 7 Sentence Starters
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Extension activities
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Accompanying worksheet
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Contents
What is ambiguity?
Pronouns
Avoiding ambiguity
Spotting ambiguity
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Ambiguity: What is ambiguity?
What is ambiguity?
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What is ambiguity?
Do you know what
ambiguity means Max?
Ha, ha, you’re so annoying! You obviously
do know. I need you to tell me because my
homework was marked down for being
ambiguous.
I may but I may not know…
I guess you didn’t like my little joke Lei.
Ambiguity means to be inexact, so the
meaning can be interpreted in more than
one way – which is confusing!
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The confusion caused by ambiguity
Let’s look at one of the descriptions that Lei
wrote, to see why it is ambiguous…
‘The crowd waved to the people in the carnival parade.
They were smiling, pleased and happy.’
This description could be understood as either:
The crowd watching the parade looked happy and
delighted.
The people in the parade looked happy and
delighted.
Can you see why both of the answers are correct?
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Recognising the causes of ambiguity
I don’t understand Max. How
can both answers be correct?
Both answers can be interpreted as correct because the
sentences are not expressed clearly.
The problem is caused by the pronoun, they in the sentence
‘They were smiling, pleased and happy.’
It might mean the people waving.
It might mean the people in the parade.
It could mean either – the sentence is ambiguous.
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Ambiguity: Pronouns
Pronouns
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Understanding pronouns
Do you know what a pronoun is?
How many can you think of?
Pronouns are words such as he, she, it, we, they, us, you.
They are used in place of nouns to help avoid too much
repetition.
Pronouns are very useful devices and will prevent your writing
from sounding too childish. If you overuse them though, you
could confuse your reader.
TIP: Use pronouns clearly, so that your reader
knows which nouns you are replacing.
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Pronoun test
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Identifying pronouns
The following sentences are all ambiguous. Underline the
pronouns and then explain both meanings of the sentences.
A) Juliet’s nurse gave Romeo a message saying that
she was in love with him.
B) Paul hurtled down the slope after Sam. He was going
very fast.
C) Beth persuaded Michelle to go into the sea, as she
was burning in the sun.
D) Richard met Tom in the shop where he worked.
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Ambiguity: Avoiding ambiguity
Avoiding ambiguity
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Preventing ambiguity
What can I do to avoid ambiguity Max?
I’ve got three tips to
prevent ambiguity…
1. Turn one sentence into two sentences or vice
versa, to make your meaning unambiguous.
2. Re-arrange the sentence, or add punctuation to
avoid ambiguity.
3. Change the wording slightly to clarify your meaning,
e.g. use the noun instead of the pronoun.
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Clarifying ambiguous sentences
Here are some examples of how to avoid ambiguity:
A) Juliet’s nurse gave Romeo a message saying that
she was in love with him.
This could be re-written as:
‘Juliet’s nurse gave Romeo a
message saying that Juliet was
in love with him.’
Replacing the misleading
pronoun ‘she’, with the proper
noun ‘Juliet’, explains that Juliet
loves Romeo, not the nurse.
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Clarifying ambiguous sentences
B) Paul hurtled down the slope after Sam. He was going
very fast.
This description could become:
‘Paul hurtled down the slope after Sam, who was leading
them very fast.’
Replacing the full stop with
the comma allows the
addition of the subordinate
clause, which explains that
Sam is leading Paul down
the mountain.
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Clarifying ambiguous sentences
C) Beth persuaded Michelle to go into the sea, as she
was burning in the sun.
This sentence could be changed to:
‘Michelle was burning in the sun. Beth
persuaded her to go into the sea.’
Rearranging the order of the words and
making two shorter sentences, informs the
reader that Michelle is getting burnt, not Beth.
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Clarifying ambiguous sentences
D) Richard met Tom in the shop where he worked.
This sentence could be re-arranged as:
‘Richard met Tom in the shop where Tom worked.’
The sentence stops being
ambiguous when the pronoun
‘he’ is rewritten as the noun
‘Tom’.
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Summary
To avoid unintentional ambiguity…
ensure that it is clear which noun each pronoun replaces
add extra punctuation if it helps to clarify your meaning
write longer or shorter sentences if it makes things clearer
rearrange the order of your words if it sounds confusing
aim for a balanced mixture of nouns and pronouns.
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Ambiguity: Spotting ambiguity
Spotting ambiguity
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Spotting ambiguity
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