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Indefinite pronouns
are pronouns that do not specify a particular person
or gender, such as someone, anybody, everyone,
etc. In other words, they do not refer to a specific
noun. The following chart identifies some singular
and plural indefinite pronouns:
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
Someone |
Both |
|
Anybody |
Few |
|
Anyone |
Fewer |
|
Nobody |
Several |
|
No One |
Others |
|
Everyone |
Many |
|
Somebody |
|
|
Everybody |
|
Pronoun-Antecedent
Agreement
Pronouns are used to
stand for or replace a noun in a sentence. When you
use a pronoun to refer to a noun, the noun is
called the antecedent. Pronouns have to agree in
number, person, and gender with their antecedents. For example,
Katie needs to
stop playing video games because her
homework is due tomorrow.
Her
is the pronoun that refers to the antecedent, the
specific noun Katie.
Her also indicates number (singular), person
(3rd person), and gender (female) in agreement with
the antecedent Katie.
Pronouns and the need
for pronoun-antecedent agreement are easy enough to
understand, but when it comes to making them agree,
it can get a little complicated. So, let’s discuss
each kind of indefinite pronoun.
Singular
Indefinite Pronouns
When you are using a
singular indefinite pronoun, you must use a singular
pronoun to refer back to the indefinite pronoun as
well.
Example:
The professor said
that everyone must turn in
his or her test now.
You want to use
his or her because the indefinite pronoun,
everyone, is singular. You need to use both
sexes in this instance because everyone is
third person, but it's not gender specific, and you do not want to
offend the reader in any way by assuming a gender. Make sure that you do
not use their to refer to everyone in this sentence because then
the sentence would not agree in number.
Tip: If you are writing a
paragraph, you might want to revise this sentence to
make it plural because otherwise his and her
is going to be in the paragraph a lot. The phrase
his and
her is not grammatically incorrect, but it does
sound awkward when repeated too many times. Here is
an example of how to make this sentence plural:
Example:
The professor said
that they must turn in their
tests now.
It is much easier to
repeat “they” instead of ‘his and her” in a
paragraph, or better yet, make the first pronoun
more specific.
Example: The
professor said the students must turn
in their tests now.
Plural Indefinite
Pronouns
When you use a plural
indefinite pronoun, you have to use a plural pronoun
to refer to the antecedent indefinite pronoun as well.
Example:
I gave both
of the babies their medicine
today.
In this example
both is a plural indefinite pronoun, so you have to keep
the sentence plural by using a plural pronoun to
refer to it later in the sentence. You
would not use his or her in this example
because his or her is singular and not
plural.
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