Indefinite pronouns & gender-neutral pronouns

The "other" personal pronouns

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► Continued from personal pronouns

1. Indefinite pronouns

There are other pronouns in English that are similar to personal pronouns, and generally used like personal pronouns; these are words that are known as indefinite pronouns : they include words such as someone, anyone, anything, whoever, etc.

Examples

Someone told me you're going to New York next week.
I can't see anything.
Anything could happen !
Whoever said that was obviously not telling the truth.
Whatever happens, don't tell him the answer !
I'll pay you whatever you want.... within reason!

2. Numbers and quantifiers used as pronouns

Numbers, and quantifiers can also be used as indefinite pronouns. Examples include many, enough or plenty or all.

Examples

Most of the people went home after the party, but three stayed to help clean up.
There were twenty melons in the box, but ten were damaged.
Plenty was said at the meeting, but the directors couldn't agree.
He can talk complete nonsense, but many will still believe him.
It may be the truth, but few are going to believe a story like that.
Enough is enough.
All is not lost.
All you need is Love.

3. Gender neutral pronouns

Sometimes we need to use a third-person singular pronoun to refer to a person, without knowing if the person is male or female, or without wanting to specify the gender. For obvious reasons, we can't use he or she; but we can't use it either, as it is not a gender-neutral personal pronoun, but refers to an object.

They used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun.

The classic solution in English is to use they / them / their as a singular pronoun. There is nothing new about this: people have been using they as gender-neutral singular pronouns for a long time; however this has become more common in recent decades.

It is important to note that while these pronouns take on a singular meaning, they are still used as grammatical plurals. This is clear from examples 2 to 4 below, where the verbs after someone, whoever and anyone are clearly in the singular, but the verbs in the second part of the sentence, after they, are in the plural. This is a grammatical inconsistency, but it is grammatically correct English.

Avoid using the sometimes-used "his or her" : this is not good style, even if it is just occasionally necessary.

Examples:

If someone rings, tell them to call back later
Someone has been in here recently, but they haven't taken anything.
Whoever speaks first, tell them they're not to go on for more than ten minutes!
If anyone was awake, they were not showing it.
If somebody tries to open the safe, they'll get a big surprise.
Each member of the committee gave their opinion.

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