Indefinite Pronouns | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hey grammarians today I want to talk
about the idea of the indefinite pronoun
which looks kind of 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 programs
actually there are a couple number one
they can be used as both subjects or
objects in a sentence so if you said to
me David do you want pizza I could
respond yes please I 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 asked me you know do you like
mangoes or cherries more I could say I
like both equally referring to the
cherries and the mangos 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 singing
usually so words like both neither and
either are obviously plural but there
are some that are a little bit fuzzier
for example in the 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 the sentence everybody
knows that I love onions we use the word
nose just like we'd say he knows she
knows it knows so that's the the
singular form of that verb even though
the idea of everybody would seem to
refer to more than one person the the
indefinite pronoun that we use to refer
to everybody usually conjugate 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 you know 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 the 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 end in an
ironclad 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 the fact that here
everyone refers to multiple people is
going to override the rules that are
previously established and that's what
okay as long as you're making sense so
relative pronouns are usually singular
unless the context drags them into the
realm of the plural so like their name
implies sometimes indefinite pronouns
can be a little indefinite all right
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 Dave it out