Pronouns: indefinite (-body, -one, -thing, -where)

We use -body, -one, -thing, -where to refer to people, places and things in a general

way. We write them as one single word, apart from no one, which can be written as

two separate words or with a hyphen (no-one).

People Places Things

Everyone Everywhere Everything

Everybody

Used in affirmative Someone Somewhere Something

sentences Somebody

Used in questions and Anyone Anywhere Anything

negative sentences Anybody

No one Nowhere Nothing

Nobody

The differences in their meanings are the same as the differences between some, any,

every and no. We use them all with a singular verb:

Is anyone helping Claire with the washing up?

Everybody loves my food.

I’m looking for somewhere I can buy chocolate cake.

Circle the correct answer:

Would you like something / nothing to eat?

It was really dark and I couldn’t see something / anything.

Does anyone / no one live in that house?

This is boring. There’s something / nothing to do.

The shop is closed. Everyone / someone went home.

Do you have anything / nothing to eat?

There’s everybody / somebody outside the house.

I don’t have anything / something to eat.

I saw anybody / somebody outside the window.

There’s nobody / anybody there.

Everyone / Anyone knows that one plus one equals two.

Somebody / Anybody is knocking on the door.

I don't see anybody / nobody at the park.

Everybody / Nobody, please be quiet!

I heard nobody / somebody singing in the shower.

I need to find somebody / anybody to help me with my homework.

Does anyone / no one see my phone?

I didn’t know anything / something about math when I was little.

When I came to school this morning, there’s no one / someone there, I had to play

alone.

I think the house was empty because everyone / no one answered the door

A: “Can I have a biscuit?”

B: “Sorry, there aren’t anything / something left.”

There’s everything / nothing good on TV tonight, so we’re going to the cinema.

Can we sit nowhere / somewhere quieter, please? It’s very noisy in here.

Sarah shared her cookies with everyone / nobody in the class.

There was nowhere / anywhere to park the car.