It’s very well-established in English grammar that (1) the verb must always agree with the number—singular or plural—of the noun or pronoun that does or states the action, and that (2) the pronoun or its possessive form must always agree with the gender—male, female, or neuter—of its antecedent noun. We thus routinely make verbs perfectly agree with the number of the noun or pronoun doing or stating them: “
Eve loves apples straight from the tree.” “
Eve and Adam love apples straight from the tree.” We also consistently make the pronoun and possessive pronoun perfectly agree with the gender of their respective antecedent nouns: “Eve loves apples;
her friend Adam also
loves them.”
But problems arise when we use
indefinite pronouns—those words that, without specific antecedent nouns, we use as the action’s doers or receivers. It’s often obvious whether an indefinite pronoun is singular or plural, but at times there’s no way of knowing what gender to use for its possessive form. Consider the indefinite pronouns “all” and “somebody” in this sentence: “
All of us [is, are] agreed that the task must be done, but somebody who
has [his, her] personal interests foremost
in [his, her]
mind must inhibit [himself, herself] from doing it.” That we should use the verb “are” for the pronoun “all” is clear, of course, but whether to use “his” or “her” as the possessive of the pronoun “somebody,” and whether to use “himself” or “herself” as its reflexive pronoun, are very thorny choices indeed!
This ambiguity has given rise to certain conventions—some self-evident and some rather arbitrary—to make sure that our grammar of the indefinite pronouns remains beyond reproach. Before discussing these conventions, though, we have to be doubly sure which of the indefinite pronouns are notionally singular or plural, or which can be either way depending on how they are used.
These are
the 20 definitely singular indefinite pronouns: “another,” “anybody,” “anyone,” “anything,” “each,” “either,” “everybody,” “everyone,” “everything,” “little,” “much,” “neither,” “nobody,” “no one,” “nothing,” “one,” “other,” “somebody,” “someone,” and “something.” As proof, we can use practically all of them in the following sentence with no trouble at all: “________ is to blame for what happened.”*
The five definitely plural indefinite pronouns—“both,” “few,” “many,” “others,” and “several”—likewise take singular possessive pronouns and singular reflexive pronouns. Each can take the plural possessive pronoun “their” and the reflexive “themselves,” and we don’t even have to think about gender at all when using them.
Six indefinite pronouns—“all,” “any,” “more,” “most,” “none,” and “some”—can either be singular or plural depending on what they refer to. Singular: “
All of that book is pure, unmitigated trash.” Plural: “
The singers are at the studio;
all are rehearsing their songs.”
Now, let’s go back to the dilemma of what gender to use for the singular indefinite possessives. As we all know, the standard practice in English is to use the possessive pronoun “his” when no information is available about the antecedent noun’s gender: “
Everybody must give
his share to this noble cause.” The only exception is when the statement refers to a known all-female group, as in: “
Everybody in this women’s league must give
her share to this noble cause.”
But there are two effective schemes to skirt this evident male bias in the English language. The first is to use the phrase “his or her” when the indefinite possessive is required: “
Everybody must give
his or her share to this cause.” As this results in awkward repetition, however, more discerning writers and speakers prefer to rewrite entire sentences so they can use a plural antecedent indefinite pronoun and do away with the need to establish gender: “
All must give their share to this noble cause.” “
All of us must give our share to this cause.”
By using this scheme, they are actually taking one major step toward establishing equality of the sexes in the language.
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*The exceptions in this list of singular indefinite pronouns are “little,” “much,” and “other.” they
specifically don’t work in such constructions but their singular character can be seen in the
following sentences: “Little is done by people who only talk.” “Much is accomplished through
hard work.” “Other than him, who is to blame?”Read this column and listen to its voice recording in
The Manila Times:
The thorny grammar of the indefinite pronouns(Next:
“Used to” and other grammar puzzlers) June 8, 2023
Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
