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Anyone who has ever lived in the city will never take for granted the peace of the country.
I was told not to worry and that everything would be taken care of.
Someone whispered in my ear, but when I turned around, there was not anybody there.
Someone should sue the pants off that guy!
Anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it.
Someone drank all the soda.
Can anyone tell me why it is raining again?
No one likes to eat vegetables.
Someone will clean up the kitchen.
No one was home at the neighbor's.
Everybody loves to eat chocolate.
Everyone brought canned goods to the charity drive.
SANCHEZ, ASHERA LENETTE J. M/W/F 11:00 – 12:00 ACD 108
BSBA Operations Management 1 NOVEMBER 2019
Types of indefinite pronouns fit two categories: those that are made up of two morphemes and
are called compound pronouns, such as somebody, and those that are followed by the word of,
called of-pronouns, such as all or many.
Most indefinite pronouns take singular verbs, either because they represent one thing or because
they are collective, and, like collective nouns, agree with singular verbs and pronouns.
For example,
The disagreement of the singular collective pronouns with pronouns in the predicate is one of the
most common errors in formal, written English because informal, spoken English doesn't always
adhere to the rule. In informal speech, someone would likely say, "Everybody kept the
information on the surprise to themselves," and no one would find a reason to correct the
speaker, because the context is clear.
Variable indefinite pronouns (all, any, more, most, none, some) can go with either a plural or a
singular verb, based on what noun they're talking about. Can you count what's being talked
about? Then give it a plural verb. For example,
SANCHEZ, ASHERA LENETTE J. M/W/F 11:00 – 12:00 ACD 108
BSBA Operations Management 1 NOVEMBER 2019
Prepositional Phrases
Watch out when you've got prepositional phrases separating your subject and your verb.
Here, each is the subject of the sentence, not friends, and so takes a singular verb. Each is always
singular.
When you have a prepositional phrase following a variable pronoun, what's in the phrase does
help determine which type of verb you'll need.
all
any
anybody
anyone
anything
both
each
each
one
either
either
one
enough
every
everybody
everyone
few
many
most
much
neither
neither
SANCHEZ, ASHERA LENETTE J. M/W/F 11:00 – 12:00 ACD 108
BSBA Operations Management 1 NOVEMBER 2019
one
no
one
nobody
none
nothing
several
some
somebody
someone
something
Sources
Ron Cowan, The Teacher's Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press, 2008
Penelope Choy and Dorothy Goldbart Clark, Basic Grammar, and Usage, 8th ed. Wadsworth,
2011
Randolph Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985
Andrea B. Geffner, Business English: The Writing Skills You Need for Today's Workplace, 5th
ed. Barron's, 2010