Complete the sentence: My cousin rang her boss and told _____ that she thought it would make a great slogan.

Complete the sentence: My cousin rang her boss and told _____ that she thought it would make a great slogan.

• A. Him
• B. Her
• C. Them
• D. Us

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is pronoun reference after verbs of speaking. After tell, you replace the person who is being told with a pronoun that refers to that person. In this sentence, the person being told is the boss, so the blank should be filled with the boss’s pronoun. The most natural choice in this context is him, giving: My cousin rang her boss and told him that she thought it would make a great slogan. The content of what was said remains the same: she thought it would make a great slogan. If the boss were known to be female, her would fit. Them would be used only if you want to avoid gender, or if you were talking about more than one person, which isn’t the case here. Us isn’t suitable because you’re not including the speaker and others as the ones being told.

The main idea here is pronoun reference after verbs of speaking. After tell, you replace the person who is being told with a pronoun that refers to that person. In this sentence, the person being told is the boss, so the blank should be filled with the boss’s pronoun. The most natural choice in this context is him, giving: My cousin rang her boss and told him that she thought it would make a great slogan. The content of what was said remains the same: she thought it would make a great slogan. If the boss were known to be female, her would fit. Them would be used only if you want to avoid gender, or if you were talking about more than one person, which isn’t the case here. Us isn’t suitable because you’re not including the speaker and others as the ones being told.