Why Doesn't My Reader Know What "It" or "This" Is Pointing To? (Vague Pronoun Reference)

"The ball hit the window and it broke." Quick — what broke, the ball or the window? You probably meant the window, but the sentence doesn't say so. When a pronoun like it or this could point to more than one thing, your reader is left to guess. And good writing never makes a reader guess.

Why this happens

Here's the trap, and it catches everyone. When you write the sentence, you know exactly what it means — you're sitting right inside your own head, watching the whole scene. Your brain fills the gap automatically, every single time, without even asking you. But your reader isn't in your head. All they get is the words, and if a little word like it or this has two things it could be pointing at, the meaning goes foggy. The fix is to read your sentence the way a stranger would — someone who doesn't already know what you meant.

The problem: a pronoun with too many options

A pronoun needs one clear thing to point back to. When there are two possible things, it stalls:

• ✗ The ball hit the window and it broke. (which one?)
• ✓ The ball hit the window**, and the window broke.**
• ✗ Sam told Tom that he had won. (who won — Sam or Tom?)
• ✓ Sam told Tom**, "You've won."**
• ✗ I put the cake on the plate and then dropped it. (the cake or the plate?)
• ✓ I put the cake on the plate and then dropped the cake.

In each fixed version, you can point to exactly one thing. That's the whole goal.

"This" and "that" floating on their own

There's a special version of this that's worth watching for. This and that often float at the start of a sentence with nothing solid behind them:

• ✗ We lost, then it rained, then the coach shouted. This ruined my day. (this... what exactly? The losing? The rain? The shouting? All of it?)
• ✓ …This whole afternoon ruined my day.

The trick here is small and brilliant: whenever you start a sentence with This or That, try dropping a noun straight after it — this afternoon, this mistake, this idea, this decision. Adding that one word instantly tells the reader what you're bundling up, and the fog clears.

The pointing test

Here's a test you can literally do with your finger. Read your sentence. Put one finger on the pronoun — it, this, they, whatever it is. Now put your other finger on the one word it's meant to stand for. Can you land cleanly on a single word? If yes, you're fine. If your finger hovers between two nouns, or can't find anything solid to land on at all, you've caught a vague pronoun red-handed — and now you know to fix it.

The empty "they"

One more common one: they with no group named just behind it.

• ✗ At my school, they don't allow phones in lessons. (who is "they"? Teachers? The head? The rules?)
• ✓ At my school, the rules say no phones in lessons.

An empty they nearly always wants a real subject in its place — the rules, the teachers, the club. Name who you actually mean.

The one exception: "it" that points to nothing

Just so you don't over-worry, there's one kind of it that looks vague but isn't a problem at all — the it in It is raining or It's getting late. That it doesn't stand for any noun; it's just a little word holding the sentence up, a bit like scaffolding. There's nothing to point to and nothing to fix, so don't panic-edit the weather. The pointing test is only for the it and this that are meant to stand for something.

The fix: ask "this what?"

Whenever you write it, this or that, pause and ask yourself: could a reader point to exactly what I mean? If not, name the thing — even if it feels like you're repeating yourself. And don't be afraid of that repetition. A lot of people think you must never use the same word twice, so they stuff in pronouns to sound varied and end up fuzzy. Honestly, clear repetition beats clever confusion every time. A reader would far rather see the window twice than have to reread your sentence to work out what broke.

Why it matters

Vague pronouns are one of the cheapest things to fix and one of the biggest wins for clarity. A reader who has to stop and guess what it means loses the thread — and if it keeps happening, they quietly stop trusting your writing. In an exam, an answer where every pronoun points cleanly reads as careful and sharp; one full of floating its and thises reads as muddled thinking, even when your ideas are good. One finger on the pronoun, one on the thing it means: that quick check protects your meaning every time.

Quick check

Make each one clear:

1. My phone fell on the tile but it didn't crack.
2. She practised for weeks. This paid off.
3. Anna told Beth that she had passed.
4. At the club they said we needed new boots.
5. We raised £200 for charity. It was brilliant.

Answers

1. Say which: …but the phone didn't crack. (or the tile, if that's what you meant)
2. …This hard work paid off. (name what "this" is)
3. Name who passed: Anna told Beth, "You've passed." (or "…that Beth had passed")
4. Name the group: At the club, the coaches said we needed new boots.
5. …Raising that money was brilliant. (or "The total was brilliant")

Where next

• Why Doesn't My Pronoun Match? — pronouns agreeing with their nouns.
• What Is a Pronoun? — the words that stand in for nouns.
• Avoiding Ambiguity — making sure readers get your meaning.