WEBVTT

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- [Voiceover] Hey grammarians,

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today I'm gonna talk about the idea

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of the indefinite pronoun,

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which looks kinda complicated

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but really just does
what it says on the tin.

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An indefinite pronoun is just that,

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it's indefinite, undefined, uncertain.

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These are pronouns that we use when

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we're not being especially specific.

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Words like

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any, anybody, each, everyone, nobody.

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Any time I need to remember

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what words fall into this category

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of indefinite pronouns,

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I just think of the song

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Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,

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originally by Solomon Burke,

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and then later made famous
by the Rolling Stones

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and the Blues Brothers.

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So a cool thing about indefinite pronouns,

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actually there are a couple.

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Number one, they can be used as both

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subject or object in a sentence.

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So if you said to me,

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"David, do you want pizza?"

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I could respond,

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"Yes, please! I'd love some,"

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using it as an object,

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or equally plausibly I could say,

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"Yes, please! Some would be great,"

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using it as a subject.

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Another really cool thing
about indefinite pronouns

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is that the words both,
neither, and either

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retain the dual.

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They are some of the only words in English

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that refer to only two things.

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So these three pronouns are actually

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a little bit less indefinite than

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most indefinite pronouns
because they refer to

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a set of two things.

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So if someone asks me,

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"Do you like mangoes or cherries more?"

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I could say,

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"I like both equally,"

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referring to the cherries and the mangoes

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at the same time.

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And this is really strange because,

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in English, this dual case
doesn't really exist anymore

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except for in very limited amounts

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because English distinguishes between

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whether or not there's one of something

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and more than one of something,

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but this is one of the very few cases

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where we ever distinguish between

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more than one of something

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and specifically two of something.

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There are not a whole
lot of words in English

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that refer to that,

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so I think that's really cool.

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The third cool thing about
indefinite pronouns is that

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they're usually treated
as singular, usually.

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So words like both, neither, and either

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are obviously plural but there are some

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that are a little bit fuzzier.

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For example, in this sentence,

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"Nobody was home,"

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we use the word was, the singular form.

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Even though that nobody could
refer to multiple people,

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or it's really referring
to the absence of anyone.

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Similarly, in this sentence

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"Everybody knows that I love onions,"

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we use the word knows, just like we'd say

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he knows, she knows, it knows.

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So that's the singular form of that verb.

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Even though the idea of everybody

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would seem to refer to
more than one person.

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The indefinite pronoun that we use

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to refer everybody usually conjugates

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the third person singular
form of verbs, usually.

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Let's get to one of the
weirder examples, though,

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because sometimes the context can

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carry you along into something that

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might seem a little quote, unquote

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"ungrammatical" but
really reflects the way

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that language is used today.

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And so although you might say

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"Everyone is looking at me,"

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here's an example from
Garner's Modern American Usage,

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which is one of the
several car-sized books

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I'm using to construct
this grammar course.

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"Everyone was crouched behind
furniture to surprise me,

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"but I already knew they were there."

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And you can see in the
beginning of this sentence,

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we say "Everyone was,"

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but then in the second
part of the sentence,

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we say "they were,"

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and we're using they to refer to everyone.

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So how can this be?

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This doesn't seem grammatical.

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But as Garner says,

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"Sometimes meaning rather than
grammar governs agreement."

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Is this grammatical?

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Yes, in that it makes sense.

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Does it adhere concretely
and in an iron-clad way

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to these rules that we've established?

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No, but language is kind
of messy in that way.

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Sometimes the meaning of the sentence,

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the fact that here everyone
refers to multiple people

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is going to override the rules

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that are previously established.

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And that's okay,

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as long as you're making sense.

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So relative pronouns are usually singular,

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unless the context drags them
into the realm of plural.

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So like their name implies,

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sometimes indefinite
pronouns can be a little...

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indefinite.

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Alright, here are the three cool things

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about indefinite pronouns.

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Number one, they can be
used as subjects or objects.

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Both, neither, and either
retain the dual form,

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which is super weird.

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And number three, indefinite
pronouns are usually

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treated as singular.

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Usually.

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I know that's confusing,

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but I have faith in you.

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You can learn anything.

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David, out.