I read these 2 sentence (or at least very similar) as correct sentences in KAPLAN,
1- If anyone wants to leave early, THEY can.
2- somebody has spilled THEIR coffee on the carpet
but I doubt that they are coreect, I would appreciate your feedback.
Indefinite Pronouns
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- moatazyousif
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- rockeyb
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moatazyousif wrote:I read these 2 sentence (or at least very similar) as correct sentences in KAPLAN,
1- If anyone wants to leave early, THEY can.
2- somebody has spilled THEIR coffee on the carpet
but I doubt that they are coreect, I would appreciate your feedback.
I dont think they are correct as ANYONE and SOMEBODY are singular and will take singular pronouns .
Having said that we need to know the context in which these pronouns have been used , some times we may have exceptions .
"Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess"
- fibbonnaci
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an indefinite pronoun has a plural pronoun to refer back to the indefinite pronoun but a singular verb.
'their, they' etc are correct pronouns to refer back to 'somebody, anybody' etc.
'their, they' etc are correct pronouns to refer back to 'somebody, anybody' etc.
- rockeyb
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@fibbonnaci ,
Hey , I think its not always true .
Ex : Each of the members has his/her vote .
EACH - singular indefinite pronoun.
his/her -singular personal pronoun .
Lets look at another example
Ex: All the people in the stadium clapped their hands .
ALL - One of the SANAM pronouns and since it refers to people here its plural .
THEIR - plural personal pronoun .
But its confusing :
Ex : Is everyone happy with his/her gift?
Ex : Are all the people happy with their gifts?
So I believe Singular indefinite pronoun takes Singular personal pronoun and plural Indefinite pronoun takes plural personal pronoun.
Please correct me if I am wrong .
Thanks .
Hey , I think its not always true .
Ex : Each of the members has his/her vote .
EACH - singular indefinite pronoun.
his/her -singular personal pronoun .
Lets look at another example
Ex: All the people in the stadium clapped their hands .
ALL - One of the SANAM pronouns and since it refers to people here its plural .
THEIR - plural personal pronoun .
But its confusing :
Ex : Is everyone happy with his/her gift?
Ex : Are all the people happy with their gifts?
So I believe Singular indefinite pronoun takes Singular personal pronoun and plural Indefinite pronoun takes plural personal pronoun.
Please correct me if I am wrong .
Thanks .
"Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess"
- moatazyousif
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would you please fibbonnaci, share with us your reference to this information because I want to read more about this tipic, it's really confusing as what rockeyb said.fibbonnaci wrote:an indefinite pronoun has a plural pronoun to refer back to the indefinite pronoun but a singular verb.
'their, they' etc are correct pronouns to refer back to 'somebody, anybody' etc.
- fibbonnaci
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i have prepared my grammar notes from various sources- my high school grammar book, Wren and Martin, Spidey's notes, Sahil's notes. So i do not really remember from where i picked up this grammar rule, but i will tell u exactly what i have written, so that you may include it in your compilation.
Indefinite pronouns:
eg: One hardly knows what to do
somebody has stolen my watch
Did you ask anybody to come?
All these pronouns refer to people/ things in a general way, but do not refer to any person/ thing in particular. So they are called indefinite pronouns.
We use a singular verb after indefinite pronouns.
After words with everybody, somebody, anybody, someone etc we use plural words even though the verb is singular. We ca use he, she, him/her etc with someone/someone when we know the person's gender.
eg: I shall be glad to help everyone of my boys in his/their studies.
"their" is usually accepted correct for indefinite pronouns.
Hope this helps!
Indefinite pronouns:
eg: One hardly knows what to do
somebody has stolen my watch
Did you ask anybody to come?
All these pronouns refer to people/ things in a general way, but do not refer to any person/ thing in particular. So they are called indefinite pronouns.
We use a singular verb after indefinite pronouns.
After words with everybody, somebody, anybody, someone etc we use plural words even though the verb is singular. We ca use he, she, him/her etc with someone/someone when we know the person's gender.
eg: I shall be glad to help everyone of my boys in his/their studies.
"their" is usually accepted correct for indefinite pronouns.
Hope this helps!
- moatazyousif
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Thanks a lot fibbonnaci for your clarifications, I really appreciate it.
But I got back to my notes that I took from Manhattan SC Guide and found the below example.
- Everyone here needs his/her own copy of the textbook in order to take this class.
either his or her is correct.
what do you think?
But I got back to my notes that I took from Manhattan SC Guide and found the below example.
- Everyone here needs his/her own copy of the textbook in order to take this class.
either his or her is correct.
what do you think?
- rockeyb
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As fibo said we dont know the gender for the noun the indefinite pronoun is referring to so we can not specify his / her .moatazyousif wrote:Thanks a lot fibbonnaci for your clarifications, I really appreciate it.
But I got back to my notes that I took from Manhattan SC Guide and found the below example.
- Everyone here needs his/her own copy of the textbook in order to take this class.
either his or her is correct.
what do you think?
Had the sentence been written :
Ex : Every one of the boys needs HIS own copy of the textbook in order to take this class.
HIS here would have been correct.
We can also say :
Ex : Every one here needs THEIR own copy of the textbook in order to take this class.
Correct again .
So the to summarize : If gender is known we can use singular / plural pronouns to refer to indefinite pronoun , but if gender is not known either singular or plural personal pronoun will correct.
"Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess"