“All of the cookies are gone.”
Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that refer to nonspecific people, places, or things. They don’t point to a particular, identifiable noun. Indefinite pronouns are very useful for making general statements without needing to pinpoint specific individuals or objects.
What they are
- Indefinite pronouns refer to general, rather than specific nouns. They indicate an unknown or unspecified person, place, or thing.
How they are used
- General references
- They are used when you don’t need to or can’t specify exactly who or what you’re talking about.
- Examples: “Someone called.” / “Anything is possible.” / “Everyone is here.”
- Subject or object
- Like other pronouns, indefinite pronouns can function as the subject or object of a sentence.
- Example: “Someone is at the door” (subject), “I saw someone” (object).
- Singular and plural: Indefinite pronouns can be singular, plural, or either, depending on the word and context.
- Singular: anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, nobody, no one, nothing, somebody, someone, something.
- Plural: both, few, many, several, others.
- Singular or plural: all, any, more, most, none, some.
- Agreement
- It’s important to ensure subject-verb agreement. Most indefinite pronouns are considered singular, so they take singular verbs. However, some can be plural, or take on either singular or plural form depending on the context.
More examples
- “All of the cake is gone.” (singular)
- “All of the cakes are gone.” (plural)
- “Are any of them coming?”
- “Everyone is welcome.”
- “Few understand the problem.”
- “Somebody left a message.”
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