General English Level 4 V 3
UNIT 04 What happened? TOPIC 01 Survivors
LANGUAGE FOCUS 03 Indefinite pronouns and adverbs
Cynthia writes:
I had come to find some ancient rock paintings which were somewhere nearby...

I was relaxed and wondering if there was a good campsite anywhere close. There was no one else around...

My pleasant daydream was shattered when a huge crocodile suddenly leapt out of the water right in front of me! It came from nowhere !

There was blood everywhere .

By now I was seriously injured and covered in blood, but there was no one to help me...

I knew there was a ranger's hut nearby but didn't know if anyone would be there...

Someone found me a few hours later and rescued me.

1. Cynthia uses somewhere, anywhere, nowhere and everywhere to talk about places in a general way. We call these words indefinite adverbs . For example,

I had come to find some ancient rock paintings which were somewhere nearby.. .
(Cynthia knew there were paintings but didn't know exactly where.)
It came from nowhere !
(She didn't know where the crocodile came from.)

Is

there

somewhere
anywhere 		to go ?
There is somewhere
nowhere 		to go.

2. Cynthia uses someone, anyone, no one to talk about a person without saying exactly who they are. We call these words indefinite pronouns . For example,

Someone found me a few hours later and rescued me.
(A person found her but she doesn't say who it was.)
…but there was no one to help me.
(There was no person to help her.)

Everyone is another indefinite pronoun. For example,

Everyone rushed to help me.

We can also use -body instead of -one : somebody, anybody, nobody

Is
there someone
anyone
here?
There is someone
no one 		here.

3. We use the 3rd person singular form of the verb with these words, for example,

There was no one else around…
Someone found me a few hours later and rescued me.

Examples

1 Read the examples.
2 Listen to the examples.
3 Practise saying each example. Use the Pause button.

Example 1.

Gina:
Is there somewhere we can go for lunch? Anywhere will do.
Bill:
No, there's nowhere nice to eat around here. There's a really good café somewhere in New Town.
Gina: It's nowhere near here though. We'll have to catch a bus.

Example 2.

Penny:
I need someone to help me with my homework.
Sarah, do you know anyone who is good at Maths?
Sarah:
No, there's no one I know. I'll ask Jenny if she knows someone .

Now go to 04 LANGUAGE FOCUS Indefinite pronouns and adverbs - task.