In the sentence "When the girl spoke to Anna, she was nervous," who does 'she' most likely refer to?

• A. The girl
• B. Anna
• C. Both
• D. Cannot be determined without more context

Answer: (D)

Pronoun reference. In English, a pronoun stands in for a noun (an antecedent), but which noun it refers to must be clear from context. Here there are two feminine antecedents: the girl and Anna. The sentence doesn’t include a cue that ties “she” to one or the other, so the pronoun could reasonably refer to either person depending on what the speaker intends. Without more context, you can’t determine who is nervous. To fix the ambiguity, you could rewrite to specify who is nervous, or recast the sentence so the antecedent is unambiguous, such as “The girl was nervous when she spoke to Anna” (referring to the girl) or “Anna was nervous after the girl spoke to her” (referring to Anna).