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INDEFINITE PRONOUN

This posting is the answer for endungku_adhya

Actually there are two kinds of pronoun, they are:

1. Definite Pronoun
2. Indefinite Pronoun


DEFINITE PRONOUN

Definite Pronoun (Def.) is a word that identify a spesific person or thing. They position as a subject, object, possessive adjective, possession and reflexive pronoun. Details.

INDEFINITE PRONOUN

Indefinite Pronoun (Def.) is a word that identify general person or thing.

1. Positive Indefinite Pronoun

For examples:

One
everyone
someone
everybody
other
many
a few

a little
some
somebody
all


Study this follows!

one knocked the front door of my house last night.
someone stole his money.
everybody needs money.
everyone attends the meeting early in the morning.
many died in the war.
a few escaped from the jail.
all are new.
some says the same as what you said.
somebody must have left a message.
Others did too.

The Indefinite Pronoun doesn't mention who she/he is. When we change it into definite pronoun, we will get difficult to make certain whether, for example, the word /someone/ refers to /he/ or /she/ or even /it/. This question will appear : "Are they things or persons?. Although we have already known (perhaps) that /one/ who is mentioned is a man or a woman or a child, however, the certainty of its existance is still questioned. On the other hand, the indefinite pronoun is still in its general existance.

When we say and mention one of The Indefinite pronouns like, /one/,/someone/,/everyone/, /everybody/ or /somebody/, our listeners will understand enough the point of our speaking. But that will be different when we say or mention /many/, /few/,/little/,/all/,/some/ or /other/ without saying it completely like, many people.

Study this follows carefully!


1. All are new.
2. All of the clothes are new.

In sentence (1), the word /all/ doesn't go to the point of all's object. Then, What does 'all' mean?. But, In sentence (2), /all/ becomes clear enough to understand.
Sentence (1) will be more effectively understandable, when there is a preface or preword came before it.

For examples:

Andi    : Well, I want to buy a t-shirt in the "BBC Supermarket" tonight. Would you come along with me, Tina?
Tina    : well, I'd love to. Let's go, andi!
(a quarter minutes later .... in the BBC Supermarket....)
Andi    : Wow!, All are new, Tina! I get confused of what type of t-shirt I would take.
Tina    : Just take the blue one! The color is suitable to your eyes, Andi!.

In the dialoq above, we find the sentence 'All are new, tina!'. In this case, Tina has understood what Andi said. This is because Andi has mentioned or said the preface to Tina like, 'I want to buy t-shirt in the BBC Supermarket tonight.'


When I say that there is a 'Positive' indefinite pronoun, there will be a 'negative' indefinite pronoun. So, What does 'positive' and 'negative' mean?.

Positive, here, means that all of the indefinite pronoun contain positive essence.
That will be different when we say, for example, " No one knocked the front door of my house last night ". The word 'no one' means that there is no person knocked the door.

Compare this following sentence!


1. No one believes in you
2. Everyone doesn't believe in you.


These are the Negative Indefinite Pronoun:

No one
nobody
none
any
little
few, etc

For examples:

no one cares of me anymore.
nobody wants me here.
none follows the test.
none of you drives her on there.
she doesn't have any questions.
there is little time left.
few has been out.

Notice that the Negative Indefinite Pronoun above still has other explanation, like:

When we use /any/, there must be a 'negative expression', e.g. doesn't, didn't, etc. It is possible for us to say, like :

Any question ?     instead of     Do you have any questions?

What about little and few?

/Little/ and /few/ is used when there is only small units or groups or pieces at noun or person, like:

I have little time to wait for you.

The sentence above describes that there is only small counts of time in minutes (e.g. 3 or 5 minutes left) - Not in Hours. But that will be different when we use the article /a/ in /little/, like:

I have a little time to wait for you.

The sentence means that /I still have much time to ..../.

The usage of /few/ and /a few/ are the same as /little/ and /a little/. So, what are the differences?

The differences are;

/Little/ or /A little/ is used to express or describe UnCountable Nouns. And, /Few/  or /A Few/ is for Countable Nouns.