Indefinite Pronouns | The parts of speech | Grammar

- [Voiceover] Hey grammarians,

today I'm gonna talk about the idea

of the indefinite pronoun,

which looks kinda complicated

but really just does
what it says on the tin.

An indefinite pronoun is just that,

it's indefinite, undefined, uncertain.

These are pronouns that we use when

we're not being especially specific.

Words like

any, anybody, each, everyone, nobody.

Any time I need to remember

what words fall into this category

of indefinite pronouns,

I just think of the song

Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,

originally by Solomon Burke,

and then later made famous
by the Rolling Stones

and the Blues Brothers.

So a cool thing about indefinite pronouns,

actually there are a couple.

Number one, they can be used as both

subject or object in a sentence.

So if you said to me,

"David, do you want pizza?"

I could respond,

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

using it as an object,

or equally plausibly I could say,

"Yes, please! Some would be great,"

using it as a subject.

Another really cool thing
about indefinite pronouns

is that the words both,
neither, and either

retain the dual.

They are some of the only words in English

that refer to only two things.

So these three pronouns are actually

a little bit less indefinite than

most indefinite pronouns
because they refer to

a set of two things.

So if someone asks me,

"Do you like mangoes or cherries more?"

I could say,

"I like both equally,"

referring to the cherries and the mangoes

at the same time.

And this is really strange because,

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

except for in very limited amounts

because English distinguishes between

whether or not there's one of something

and more than one of something,

but this is one of the very few cases

where we ever distinguish between

more than one of something

and specifically two of something.

There are not a whole
lot of words in English

that refer to that,

so I think that's really cool.

The third cool thing about
indefinite pronouns is that

they're usually treated
as singular, usually.

So words like both, neither, and either

are obviously plural but there are some

that are a little bit fuzzier.

For example, in this sentence,

"Nobody was home,"

we use the word was, the singular form.

Even though that nobody could
refer to multiple people,

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

Similarly, in this sentence

"Everybody knows that I love onions,"

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

he knows, she knows, it knows.

So that's the singular form of that verb.

Even though the idea of everybody

would seem to refer to
more than one person.

The indefinite pronoun that we use

to refer everybody usually conjugates

the third person singular
form of verbs, usually.

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

because sometimes the context can

carry you along into something that

might seem a little quote, unquote

"ungrammatical" but
really reflects the way

that language is used today.

And so although you might say

"Everyone is looking at me,"

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

which is one of the
several car-sized books

I'm using to construct
this grammar course.

"Everyone was crouched behind
furniture to surprise me,

"but I already knew they were there."

And you can see in the
beginning of this sentence,

we say "Everyone was,"

but then in the second
part of the sentence,

we say "they were,"

and we're using they to refer to everyone.

So how can this be?

This doesn't seem grammatical.

But as Garner says,

"Sometimes meaning rather than
grammar governs agreement."

Is this grammatical?

Yes, in that it makes sense.

Does it adhere concretely
and in an iron-clad way

to these rules that we've established?

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

Sometimes the meaning of the sentence,

the fact that here everyone
refers to multiple people

is going to override the rules

that are previously established.

And that's okay,

as long as you're making sense.

So relative pronouns are usually singular,

unless the context drags them
into the realm of plural.

So like their name implies,

sometimes indefinite
pronouns can be a little...

indefinite.

Alright, here are the three cool things

about indefinite pronouns.

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

Both, neither, and either
retain the dual form,

which is super weird.

And number three, indefinite
pronouns are usually

treated as singular.

Usually.

I know that's confusing,

but I have faith in you.

You can learn anything.

David, out.