Indefinite pronouns are the ones which do not have any specific meaning or better to say that these are not specific to replace any particular noun. These pronouns never refer back to object, person or subject. It can be either plural or singular, but must tally in number with the verb. Sometimes the pronoun can be both singular as well as plural depending on the usage in the sentence.
Singular Pronoun
A singular pronoun uses verbs and personal pronoun which are singular in nature. Some of the commonly used singular pronouns are another, anybody, anything, everybody, no one, somebody, something, someone, etc. One easy way to remember such pronouns are words ending with one, thing, and the body are singular in nature. Some examples of singular pronouns are as follows:
• Everybody is present here.
• Anyone can understand what is happening here.
• Everyone was happy seeing the happy ending of the movie.
• Somebody left his notepad in the library.
If you see the above sentences you would see that they sound like referring to a number of people and hence should be plural but actually it should be interpreted as we are referring to every individual person and hence we are not using plural form. Some examples of incorrect usage of singular pronouns are as follows:
• Everybody are present. (It is incorrect).
• Somebody left their notepads in the library. (It is incorrect)
Plural Pronoun
A plural pronoun uses verbs which are plural in nature. Words like them, their, they are plural in nature and require a plural pronoun. Some of the commonly used plural pronouns are many, few, both, several, all, etc. Some examples of plural pronouns are mentioned below:
• Several files are filled with quotation errors.
• Both of them are going to a movie tonight.
• Few of the samples are being considered to be taken for second round of testing.
• All of them are guilty for not following the rules.
Pronouns both as Singular as well as Plural
These are the tricky ones which can behave both ways depending on the noun they are replacing. The rule of thumb here is prepositional phrases follows the pronoun and the pronoun must tally with the object in prepositional phrases in terms of number. Some of the commonly used pronouns are most, either, none, some, etc. Few examples for such dual usages are as follows:
• Most of the questions are out of syllabus. ----Plural usage
• Most often he is quite. ----Singular usage
• All is well. ----Singular usage
• All of them failed to get good grades in the exam. ----Plural usage.
Well here you can learn more about Indefinite Pronouns.
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