{"id":39,"date":"2022-05-20T21:09:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T21:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/chapter\/indefinite-pronouns\/"},"modified":"2022-05-20T21:09:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T21:09:01","slug":"indefinite-pronouns","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/chapter\/indefinite-pronouns\/","title":{"raw":"Indefinite Pronouns","rendered":"Indefinite Pronouns"},"content":{"raw":"\n<img class=\"alignright wp-image-971\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/107\/2016\/07\/20173128\/indefinite.jpg\" alt=\"dotted outline of a person\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\">\n\nThese pronouns can be&nbsp;used in a couple of different ways:\n<ul>\n \t<li>They can&nbsp;refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. (<i>To <b>each<\/b> his or her own.<\/i>)<\/li>\n \t<li>They can&nbsp;indicate the non-existence of people or things. (<i><b>Nobody<\/b> thinks that.<\/i>)<\/li>\n \t<li>They can&nbsp;refer to a person, but are not specific as to first, second or third person in the way that the personal pronouns are. (<i><b>One<\/b> does not clean <b>one's<\/b> own windows.<\/i>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nPlease note that&nbsp;all of these pronouns are singular. The&nbsp;table below shows the most common indefinite pronouns:\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>anybody<\/td>\n<td>anyone<\/td>\n<td>anything<\/td>\n<td>each<\/td>\n<td>either<\/td>\n<td>every<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>everybody<\/td>\n<td>everyone<\/td>\n<td>everything<\/td>\n<td>neither<\/td>\n<td>no one<\/td>\n<td>nobody<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>nothing<\/td>\n<td>nobody else<\/td>\n<td>somebody<\/td>\n<td>someone<\/td>\n<td>something<\/td>\n<td>&nbsp;one<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n\n<strong>Note:<\/strong> Sometimes&nbsp;third-person personal pronouns are sometimes used without antecedents\u2014this applies to special uses such as dummy pronouns and generic <i>they<\/i>, as well as cases where the referent is implied by the context.\n<ul>\n \t<li>You know what&nbsp;<em>they<\/em> say.<\/li>\n \t<li><em>It's<\/em> a nice day today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\nPlease note that&nbsp;all of these pronouns are singular. Look back at the example \"To&nbsp;<strong>each<\/strong> his or her own.\" Saying \"To each their own\" would be incorrect, since <em>their<\/em> is a plural pronoun and <em>each&nbsp;<\/em>is singular.&nbsp;We'll discuss this in further depth in <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/styleguide\/chapter\/antecedent-agreement\/\" target=\"_blank\">Antecedent Agreement<\/a>.\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Practice<\/h3>\nIdentify the indefinite pronouns in the following sentences. Is the best indefinite&nbsp;used, or is there another indefinite that would fit better?\n<ol>\n \t<li>Everyone&nbsp;should take the time to critically think about what he or she&nbsp;wants out of life.<\/li>\n \t<li>If I had to choose between singing in public&nbsp;and swimming with leeches, I would choose neither.<\/li>\n \t<li><span data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Yasmin&quot;}\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{&quot;2&quot;:3,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;4&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:15389148}}\">Yasmin<\/span> knew everything&nbsp;was wrong, but she couldn't figure out what.<\/li>\n \t<li>If nobody else enrolls in this class, it will be cancelled this semester.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[reveal-answer q=\"565632\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\n[hidden-answer a=\"565632\"]\n<ol>\n \t<li><strong>Everyone<\/strong> is the indefinite pronoun.&nbsp;<em>He or she<\/em> is a pronoun with the antecedent&nbsp;<em>everyone<\/em>.<\/li>\n \t<li>The indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<strong>neither<\/strong>&nbsp;is used in this sentence. It is likely being used correctly, indicating that the speaker does not want to complete the actions stated earlier in the sentence. However, if the speaker thought that both singing in public and swimming with leeches were fun, the indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<em>either<\/em> would&nbsp;be the appropriate word to use.<\/li>\n \t<li>The indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<strong>everything<\/strong>&nbsp;is used in this sentence. However, based on the rest of the sentence, it doesn't quite fit. If everything is wrong,&nbsp;you wouldn't need to figure out exactly what's happening. The indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<em>something<\/em> would fit better here.\n<ul>\n \t<li>Yasmin knew <strong>something<\/strong>&nbsp;was wrong, but she couldn't figure out what.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIf everything is, in fact, wrong, perhaps the word&nbsp;<em>what<\/em> needs to be changed.\n<ul>\n \t<li>Yasmin knew everything was wrong, but she couldn't figure out <strong>how it had happened<\/strong>.<\/li>\n \t<li>Yasmin knew everything&nbsp;was wrong, but she couldn't figure out <b>why<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n \t<li>The indefinite pronoun <strong>nobody else<\/strong>&nbsp;is used in this sentence.&nbsp;If there are already some students enrolled in the class, then&nbsp;<em>nobody else<\/em> is being used correctly. If there aren't any students in the course, then&nbsp;<em>nobody<\/em> should be used instead.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[\/hidden-answer]\n\n<\/div>\n","rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-971\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/107\/2016\/07\/20173128\/indefinite.jpg\" alt=\"dotted outline of a person\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These pronouns can be&nbsp;used in a couple of different ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They can&nbsp;refer to members of a group separately rather than collectively. (<i>To <b>each<\/b> his or her own.<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li>They can&nbsp;indicate the non-existence of people or things. (<i><b>Nobody<\/b> thinks that.<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li>They can&nbsp;refer to a person, but are not specific as to first, second or third person in the way that the personal pronouns are. (<i><b>One<\/b> does not clean <b>one&#8217;s<\/b> own windows.<\/i>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please note that&nbsp;all of these pronouns are singular. The&nbsp;table below shows the most common indefinite pronouns:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>anybody<\/td>\n<td>anyone<\/td>\n<td>anything<\/td>\n<td>each<\/td>\n<td>either<\/td>\n<td>every<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>everybody<\/td>\n<td>everyone<\/td>\n<td>everything<\/td>\n<td>neither<\/td>\n<td>no one<\/td>\n<td>nobody<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>nothing<\/td>\n<td>nobody else<\/td>\n<td>somebody<\/td>\n<td>someone<\/td>\n<td>something<\/td>\n<td>&nbsp;one<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> Sometimes&nbsp;third-person personal pronouns are sometimes used without antecedents\u2014this applies to special uses such as dummy pronouns and generic <i>they<\/i>, as well as cases where the referent is implied by the context.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You know what&nbsp;<em>they<\/em> say.<\/li>\n<li><em>It&#8217;s<\/em> a nice day today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Please note that&nbsp;all of these pronouns are singular. Look back at the example &#8220;To&nbsp;<strong>each<\/strong> his or her own.&#8221; Saying &#8220;To each their own&#8221; would be incorrect, since <em>their<\/em> is a plural pronoun and <em>each&nbsp;<\/em>is singular.&nbsp;We&#8217;ll discuss this in further depth in <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/styleguide\/chapter\/antecedent-agreement\/\" target=\"_blank\">Antecedent Agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Practice<\/h3>\n<p>Identify the indefinite pronouns in the following sentences. Is the best indefinite&nbsp;used, or is there another indefinite that would fit better?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Everyone&nbsp;should take the time to critically think about what he or she&nbsp;wants out of life.<\/li>\n<li>If I had to choose between singing in public&nbsp;and swimming with leeches, I would choose neither.<\/li>\n<li><span data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Yasmin&quot;}\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{&quot;2&quot;:3,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;4&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:15389148}}\">Yasmin<\/span> knew everything&nbsp;was wrong, but she couldn&#8217;t figure out what.<\/li>\n<li>If nobody else enrolls in this class, it will be cancelled this semester.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q565632\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q565632\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Everyone<\/strong> is the indefinite pronoun.&nbsp;<em>He or she<\/em> is a pronoun with the antecedent&nbsp;<em>everyone<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>The indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<strong>neither<\/strong>&nbsp;is used in this sentence. It is likely being used correctly, indicating that the speaker does not want to complete the actions stated earlier in the sentence. However, if the speaker thought that both singing in public and swimming with leeches were fun, the indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<em>either<\/em> would&nbsp;be the appropriate word to use.<\/li>\n<li>The indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<strong>everything<\/strong>&nbsp;is used in this sentence. However, based on the rest of the sentence, it doesn&#8217;t quite fit. If everything is wrong,&nbsp;you wouldn&#8217;t need to figure out exactly what&#8217;s happening. The indefinite pronoun&nbsp;<em>something<\/em> would fit better here.\n<ul>\n<li>Yasmin knew <strong>something<\/strong>&nbsp;was wrong, but she couldn&#8217;t figure out what.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If everything is, in fact, wrong, perhaps the word&nbsp;<em>what<\/em> needs to be changed.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yasmin knew everything was wrong, but she couldn&#8217;t figure out <strong>how it had happened<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Yasmin knew everything&nbsp;was wrong, but she couldn&#8217;t figure out <b>why<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The indefinite pronoun <strong>nobody else<\/strong>&nbsp;is used in this sentence.&nbsp;If there are already some students enrolled in the class, then&nbsp;<em>nobody else<\/em> is being used correctly. If there aren&#8217;t any students in the course, then&nbsp;<em>nobody<\/em> should be used instead.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-39\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Pronouns. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pronoun\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pronoun<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Vacancy. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Pablo Rozenberg. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The Noun Project. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/search\/?q=nobody&#038;i=105997\">https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/search\/?q=nobody&#038;i=105997<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":503070,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Pronouns\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pronoun\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Vacancy\",\"author\":\"Pablo Rozenberg\",\"organization\":\"The Noun Project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/search\/?q=nobody&i=105997\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-39","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":27,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/503070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/39\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/27"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/39\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}