Indefinite Pronouns

Lesson 1 Indefinite Pronouns

   Essential Question

How do you talk about something if you can't or don't want to name it?

 Grammar in the World

Do you know what you are going to do after you finish school today? I am not sure what I am going to do after I finish work this afternoon. I might go on a walk, or I might watch my favorite TV show. I don’t really know. My plans are not definite. They are...indefinite. 

In this section, you will learn about indefinite pronouns, which are pronouns that do not refer to a specific, or definite, person, place, or thing. 

 What Do I Know?

Directions: Choose the best verb to complete the following sentences. 

 Building Blocks

Grammar is a complex system and structure of language. Mizzou Academy Grammar Lab spotlights one skill (or block) at a time. It is also helpful to see how each skill works together with other, related blocks to build the language structure as a whole. You may find the following resource topics helpful as context for this lesson:

• Nouns
• Pronouns
• Verbs

 Learn About Indefinite Pronouns

Remember that pronouns take the place of nouns. They help sentences read more smoothly and make it so that we do not have to repeat nouns over and over (and over) again. Let's look at some examples:

Example 1

When you look at this picture, how would you describe the two students?

You could use nouns and say, “Amer and Iryna are playing soccer.” Or, you could say, “Both of the students are playing soccer.”

Example 2

How would you describe the group of students in the image below?

You could use nouns and say, “Anita, Iryna, and Amer have been playing soccer.” Or, you could say, “Most of the students have been playing soccer.”

An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that does not refer to a specific person, place, thing, or idea.

Here is a table of the indefinite pronouns:

The trickiest part of these pronouns is knowing when to use a singular or a plural indefinite pronoun. As you might imagine, a singular indefinite pronoun takes a singular verb.

I wish Cori and I could go to the movies with you, but neither of us is feeling well. 

I keep trying to call Austin’s phone, but no one answers.

A plural indefinite pronoun takes a plural verb. 

There was a lot of traffic, so many were late to work.

Few are going to the parade since it is raining.

Some students memorize the indefinite pronoun chart and even chant it out loud as a class. That's one way to remember these helpful pronouns! You don’t have to memorize this chart (whew!), but one clue that may help you identify which pronoun to use is to know that many of the singular indefinite pronouns end in “body,” “one,” or “thing” (anybody, anyone, anything).

The trickiest indefinite pronouns are those that can be either singular or plural. For these sentences, you will have to figure out if the indefinite pronoun is replacing a singular or plural noun. Often, you can figure this out by looking at the phrase that follows the pronoun.

Look at the following sentence:

I played all of the music.

In this sentence, “music” is singular, so “all” is used as a singular indefinite pronoun. However, look at the next sentence:

I played all of the songs.

In this case, “songs” is plural, so “all” is a plural indefinite pronoun.

 Do I Get It?

Directions: First, choose the best verb to complete the sentence. Then, choose the correct indefinite pronoun to fill in the blank in the following sentences. (Hint: Look carefully at the verb to see if it is singular or plural!)