Did you know that indefinite pronouns are always singular? Watch the concept explained in this short video, from the perspective of the GMAT sentence correction questions.
Indefinite Pronouns on GMAT
Indefinite Pronouns on GMAT
Indefinite pronouns are those pronouns that do not refer to any particular thing, person, or place. On the GMAT, there are a number of specific rules that govern the use of these pronouns that must be adhered to. In this short article, we will cover the number of indefinite pronouns.
Indefinite Pronouns are Singular
On the GMAT, almost every instance of an indefinite pronoun is considered to be singular. Let us illustrate this concept through the following example:
Example 1 -
Someone is coming.
In Example 1, the pronoun "someone" is an indefinite pronoun because the sentence does not tell us exactly who is coming. Thus, this pronoun is singular, and the singular verb "is" is used.
To gain further clarity on this concept, please go through the following, similar examples.
Example 2 -
Nobody has come.
Example 3 -
Everybody in the class is intelligent.
In Example 2 and Example 3, the pronouns "nobody" and "everybody" are indefinite for the same reason why the word "someone" as in Example 1. Thus, both of these pronouns are singular and the singular verbs "has" and "is" have been used to refer to them.
Similarly, the pronouns anybody, somebody, anything, whatever, wherever, whomever, something, no one, nothing, etc., any pronoun used o refer to that which is unknown, are all indefinite and will be treated as singular on the GMAT.
This article has deliberately been kept brief; for a more elaborate explanation, please refer to Experts' Global's Stage One Sentence Correction videos.
