I have often struggled with sentences that contain two characters of the same gender. For example, if there are two females, Alice and Carol, then the following sentence can be confusing.
Alice reminded Carol about how she helped her last week.
Clearly, Alice is telling Carol something, but who helped whom?
When the genders differ, the ambiguity is resolved.
Alice reminded Bob about how he helped her last week.
Alice
reminded Bob about how she helped him last week.
Is there a rule that addresses this or a rule of thumb for handling it?
Best Answer
As a reader, my first choice would usually be to take whoever is subject of the main clause (Alice) to remain the subject in the following clause; but I could never be sure, and it might be ambiguous in many cases. There is no real solution. The only way out is by recasting the sentence such that the right reference will become clear from context. You will usually need to make it longer by adding more information:
I agree that this isn't the prettiest of sentences, as using the same name twice in a sentence is usually not done, but it might be acceptable. If the reader knows that the paperwork must be Carol's, references will be acceptably clear without Carol's:
A sentence rarely comes without context: usually you have something to work with, and often things will naturally fall into place even with several persons of the same gender.
Note that the problem is also very real with two or more inanimate objects; it, that, etc. can often lead to similar ambiguity:
If I changed the first sentence so that Rome became the subject, I believe its would logically point toward Rome first: