Learn English – How to write this without any confusion? How to refer ‘he’ to someone

sentence-constructionword-choice

I was writing a title in which, I need to mention two men and a woman. But the context made me think twice. I am finding an unambiguous way to tell it in the Title.

Nick told Arnold's girlfriend that he's the best husband

The confusion arises as Nick is married! Who's 'he' in the sentence now? I want to say that Nick told the girlfriend that go, marry Arnold, he's the best husband.

In the given title, there are chances that people think that Nick is bragging about himself taunting that no matter what, Arnold cannot be a better husband than him! Just in a friendly way…no offense. They all are friend…good friends in fact.

Best Answer

One way to deal with the inherent ambiguity of a pronoun is to use a direct quote instead of an indirect quote. So, if Nick is talking about Arnold, you’d write:

Nick told Arnold’s girlfriend, “He’s the best husband.”

but if Nick is bragging about himself, we put something different inside the quotation marks:

Nick told Arnold’s girlfriend, “I’m the best husband.”

If you don’t want to use a direct quote, you can also use the person's name in place of the pronoun:

Nick told Arnold’s girlfriend that Arnold is the best husband.

As a footnote, if Arnold and his girlfriend aren’t married yet, then Nick should be using a modal verb:

Nick told Arnold’s girlfriend that Arnold would be the best husband.

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