Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are without a specific reference. There are three main classes of indefinite pronouns: universal, partitive and quantifying pronouns.

Universal pronouns

ALL may refer to people and things, expressing unity or collectiveness. It refers to the group collectively, whereas its counterparts every/each refer to the members taken by one.

1. All may be used as singular (All is lost.) or plural (All the pupils were present.)

2. When the subject is a noun, all can precede or follow it. (All the students agreed that the concert was good. The students all agreed that the concert was good.)

3. When the subject is a pronoun, all generally follows it (They all agreed that the concert was good.)

4. Fixed expressions (above all především, after all koneckonců, all the better tím lépe, all but téměř, for all that přes to všechno, in all celkem, not at all vůbec ne; není zač)

EVERY takes only a singular verb, stressing every individual (That’s the sort of job that every boy likes doing.) whereas all stresses the mass (That’s the sort of job that all boys like doing.) EVERYONE can be used only for people but EVERY ONE can be used also to speak of things. (She has kept every one of my letters.) The other compounds EVERYBODY, EVERYTHING also take the singular verb.

Idiomatic use of every: He is every inch a gentleman. You have every right to be angry.

Fixed expressions: every other day (on alternate days), every two days, every now and then (občas).

EACH can only be used when the total number referred to is two or more and tends to disperse the unity, focusing attention on items individually. (They each signed the paper. Each must do their best. They gave each boy two apples.)

BOTH indicates that two objects (people or things) are regarded in conjunction. It is used only before plural and takes a plural verb.

(I have two brothers, they are both engineers. It is on both sides of the street. The book is both useful and amusing.)

 Partitive pronouns

	Some	Any	No	Every
Person - body - one	somebody someone	anybody anyone	nobody no one	everybody everyone
Thing - thing	something	anything	nothing	everything
Place - where	somewhere	anywhere	nowhere	everywhere
Time - time	sometimes	any time	never	always

SOME expresses an indefinite quantity. Pronounced as weak form it has determiner function (He wants some money.) but also nominal function, pronounced as strong form (I went out to buy some.) Suggesting contrast is always pronounced strongly (Some people hate cats; others dislike dogs.)

ANY has the meaning that it does not matter who, which or what. (Come any day you like. Get some cigarettes, please; any kind will do.) Negative meaning may be conveyed by words like never, without, seldom, hardly, scarcely in which case any is used. (He never had any luck. Hardly anybody saw her.) But! If the question is really a request, an invitation or a command in the form of a question, "some" is used (Will you ask someone to carry this bag for me, please?)

NO has a determiner function. (There is no salt on the table, and no glasses. He is no doctor.) Its compounds NOBODY, NO ONE and NOTHING have nominal function, are singular in number and are used with a singular verb. (Nobody/no one has come yet. Nothing has happened yet.) Nobody can be replaced by not anybody (I saw nobody. – I didn’t see anybody.) NONE has nominal function, refers to both people or things. (None of the students has/have failed. That’s none of your business!)

THE OTHER + singular convey the meaning the second of two. (One of my brothers is Richard, the other is Frederic. Hand me the other book, please.)

THE OTHERS convey the meaning the remaining ones. (We got home at 6, but the others didn’t.)

OTHERS/OTHER without the definite article + plural may mean different, additional. (I think others prefer plain chocolate. There are other ways of doing this exercise. There are no other alternatives.)

ANOTHER means an additional one (Will you have another cup of tea?) or a different one (I don’t like this book, lend me another, will you?).

EITHER means any one of two, does not matter which (Bring me a pen or a pencil, either will do.)

NEITHER means not this and not the other. (Neither of the two statements is correct.)

Quantifying pronouns

	MULTAL PRONOUNS		PAUCAL PRONOUNS
	Count	Non-count	Count	Non-count
Singular		Much More    ink Most		{the} {a}      little Less                  ink {the} least
Plural	Many More      pens most		{the} {a}       few Fewer              pens {the}fewest

MANY and FEW are used with countable nouns and are plurals (Have you got many books? Yes, I've got many. Are there many chocolates in the box? Not, only few. Few leaves were left upon the trees.)

MUCH and LITTLE are used with uncountable nouns. (We don’t have much time for sports. A little remains to be said.)

When few and little are used without the article, they have a negative meaning (Few books are written so clearly as this one. Little attention has been devoted to the problem.). When they are used with the indefinite article, they have a positive’ meaning. (It cost only a few crowns. It requires a little care.)

SEVERAL occurs only with plural countable function. (John has made several mistakes in his essay.)

ENOUGH is used with both countable and uncountable nouns. (Have you got enough books/food?)

ONE has several different uses. Numerical (one boy, one flower), nominal (One of the boys disappeared.), substitutional to avoid repeating the same noun (I am looking for a particular book on syntax. – Is this the one you mean?) and it can also denote people in general (One would think they do it another way.).