Which sentence has clear pronoun reference?

• A. The assistant apologized for his mistake.
• B. The manager spoke to the assistant because the assistant made a mistake.
• C. The manager spoke to the assistant after making a mistake.
• D. The manager spoke to the assistant because he made a mistake.

Answer: (B)

Pronoun reference clarity means every pronoun should have a single, identifiable noun it points back to. In this sentence, the reason is clear because the noun phrase “the assistant” is repeated in the cause part: the manager spoke to the assistant because the assistant made a mistake. There’s no pronoun that could refer to more than one person, so it’s obvious who made the mistake and who was spoken to. The other sentences rely on pronouns like his or he or use a participial phrase where the subject isn’t specified, which can make it unclear whether the manager or the assistant is the one who made the mistake. So this sentence avoids ambiguity by keeping the antecedent explicit throughout.