Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns Functions

Indefinite pronouns serve a huge number of functions that personal pronouns lack. Consider this indefinite pronoun:

Now consider the use of “everyone” in a sentence.

How would you communicate this magnanimous idea with personal pronouns only?

This is a humorous example, of course, because no one would say this. It’s not even proper to pluralize personal pronouns this way, although it’s your best option if your repertoire only consists of personal pronouns. If you wanted to sound even vaguely normal, you’d have to use a determiner:

This sounds stilted and grandiose (at best), but at least it’s acceptable. Still, even this example uses the determiner “every.”

In this case, “every” specifies all of them among those who qualify as he, she, and they.

Yet there’s obviously an easier way to communicate the idea, one which we’ve already seen. This is to use the indefinite pronoun “everyone,” which combines the determiner “every” with the generic pronoun “one” to create a handy indefinite pronoun that communicates, well, everyone.

As you can already see, indefinite pronouns are necessary to distinguish specific concepts. However, these distinctions get even more subtle as you begin to compare the uses of various indefinite pronouns.

Fig. 1 - "Everyone" is an efficient term, like all indefinite pronouns.

Subtle Functions of Indefinite Pronouns

Even indefinite pronouns have their own subtleties that set them apart from one another. Consider these three indefinite pronouns:

All of these indicate kinds of things, but they all indicate different variations of things. To get a better idea, put them into sentences.

“Doing something sounds fun” is the most tepid of these sentences. You might say this to a friend as you laze on couches, wondering whether you should go out instead. Much less tepid is “Doing anything sounds fun.” You might say this as you head to the door with your friend, batting about what you might do. Finally, “Doing everything sounds fun” is downright enthusiastic. You just can’t decide!

So, indefinite pronouns are both necessary and potentially subtle. The next step is categorizing the indefinite pronouns in terms of number and verb agreement, which gets trickier than you might imagine.

Singular Indefinite Pronouns

It starts simple enough. Here is a list of some singular indefinite pronouns.

• Another

• Anybody

• Anyone

• Anything

• Each

• Either

• Everybody

• Everyone

• Everything

• Neither

• Nobody

• No one

Each of these indefinite pronouns is singular. So, if it’s the subject (in pink), you use the singular verb (in blue).

This is also true when you combine them into a compound subject using a conjunction (in purple).

Finally, singular indefinite pronouns can exist with prepositional phrases (in teal). A prepositional phrase is a group of words tied to a preposition.

Plural Indefinite Pronouns

Here is a list of plural indefinite pronouns:

• Both

• Few

• Many

• Others

• Several

Each of these indefinite pronouns is plural, so when one is the subject, the verb is also plural.

If you’ve tried to create a list of possible indefinite pronouns, you might have come up with a few that don’t fit this singular/plural dichotomy. For some indefinite pronouns, their number depends on their use in the sentence. This is where things get tricky.

Fig. 2 - Indefinite pronouns aren't magic tricks, but they can feel like it sometimes!

Indefinite Pronouns Sentences

Here is a pair of grammatically correct sentences that use the same indefinite pronoun and the same verb “to be.” However, the plurality of “to be” and the meaning of the sentence change from one to the next.

If you can’t figure out what each might mean, try fleshing out the context to get an idea.

When you say “all are great,” you’re referring to multiple specific things, all of which are great. On the other hand, when you say “all is great,” you’re saying some universal situation is great. Take this similar use of “all” as a singular indefinite pronoun.

This is the most common context where you see “all” as singular. As you can see again, it’s highly inclusive when it takes the singular.

Here is a list of indefinite pronouns that can be singular or plural, depending on the context.

• All

• Any

• More

• Most

• None

• Some

• Such

There’s one final trick to master, though. Unlike the other indefinite pronouns, these seven indefinite pronouns change in number if they refer to something else. Here’s what that means.

Indefinite Pronouns That Change in Number When Referring to Something Else

Here’s a sentence for you.

Notice that “none” pairs with the singular verb “is.” Notably, it doesn’t do so based on an inherent trait but instead on what it refers to, in this case, “the food.”

Here’s the rule of thumb:

When all, any, more, most, none, some, and such refer to something, they become singular or plural based on that thing or those things.

So, if “none” refers to something plural, it takes a plural verb.

Here are some more pairs.

Only seven indefinite pronouns change in this fashion, though, so there’s no cause for alarm. Furthermore, these rules and tips should be more than enough to prepare you for most situations!