0

I pulled this paragraph from an English textbook written for beginner's level (A1 according to CEFR) English learners in my country (Vietnam). The question I want to ask is: Can you understand what the paragraph is trying to say?

People are living longer so there are more elderly people. Many young people are doing community service. They help elderly people. They do their shopping. They do their housework. They clean their yards. They even paint their houses.

A friend of mine, an English teacher, suggested that the multiple instances of their in the paragraph may be source for confusion and proposed changing their to the, i.e.:

People are living longer so there are more elderly people. Many young people are doing community service. They help elderly people. They do the shopping. They do the housework. They clean the yards. They even paint the houses.

How about you? How would you fix this paragraph, or should it need fixing?

Improve this question
4
  • 3
    The paragraph is clear as-is, as all antecedents can be inferred from context. Your friend's suggestion muddies that by removing the information that it's the elderly people's houses.
    – Ryan M - Regenerate response
    Oct 15, 2020 at 14:41
  • 2
    There are a lot of they and their, but the parallel structure of the sentences should make it easy to deduce that they is "young people" and their is "elderly people's".
    – Hellion
    Oct 15, 2020 at 15:15
  • 3
    I agree with Ryan and Hellion. their is used consistently to refer back to the old people. Changing it to the removes that reference and introduces confusing ambiguity.
    – Anton
    Oct 15, 2020 at 15:34
  • There is a strong sense of parallelism,; one has to be in a logic class to posit that the their's don't have 'elderley people' as their common antecedent. And ELU looks at standard usage, not logical quibbles. Pragmatics is vital.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Oct 15, 2020 at 16:52

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Common sense tells us what the paragraph is trying to say, but it does read oddly because logically it could be telling us that the young people do their own shopping etc. I don't think that substituting the for their is any improvement.

I would suggest They help elderly people with shopping, housework, cleaning yards and even house-painting.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.