indefinite pronouns: SOMEBODY SOMEONE EVERYBODY EVERYONE – English Grammar Profiler

Here are the search results in iWeb corpus for the frequency of indefinite pronouns with the tag:

_PN1

1 SOMETHING 7038440 B1  (want + object + infinitive)

Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?
No, thanks.  I‘m fine.

listen

2 ONE 7014912 3 EVERYTHING 3661675 4 SOMEONE 3447852 5 ANYTHING 3347394 6 EVERYONE 3007402 7 NOTHING 2966176

8 ANYONE 2741077

9 NO ONE 863063 (PN121 PN122)

10 EVERYBODY 476935 11 NOBODY 451477 12 SOMEBODY 350684

13 ANYBODY 307399

Here’s a student example of the indefinite pronoun ‘everyone’ in the subject position with a singular verb:

Everyone knows Istanbul.

PELIC Turkish male level 3 writing class.

The indefinite pronouns: ‘ANYONE’, ‘SOMEBODY’, ‘SOMEONE’, ‘EVERYBODY’ and ‘EVERYONE’ are all listed at A2 in the English Vocabulary Profile.  As far as CEFR level allocation, it doesn’t make any difference which position they take in the sentence.  The English Grammar Profile (EGP) does offer the following specifications though:

A2 point 23 in PRONOUNs is defined:

a limited range of indefinite pronouns (‘someone’, ‘everyone’) as subjects, with a singular verb

A2 point 33 in PRONOUNS is defined as:

an increasing range of indefinite pronouns as objects or complements of prepositions.

*Oddly, it seems ‘someone + adjective‘ is not listed with the other indefinite pronouns. Also, there is listing for ‘anybody’ in the EGP.

In the EGP examples we have:

An iWeb search for _V someone|everyone|somebody|everybody

1 FIND SOMEONE 45253 2 KNOW SOMEONE 30854 3 SEE SOMEONE 25775 4 NEED SOMEONE 22836 5 GET SOMEONE 19451 6 THINK EVERYONE 16489 7 HELP SOMEONE 15688

8 WANT SOMEONE 15239

AI examples using the most common collocates:

1 FIND SOMEONE

• • I found someone to help me with my project.
  • I found someone who could speak my language.

2 KNOW SOMEONE

• • I know someone who can help you with that.
  • I know someone who works at the bank.

3 SEE SOMEONE

• • I saw someone strange lurking in the shadows.
  • I saw someone I knew at the grocery store.

4 NEED SOMEONE

• • I need someone to talk to.
  • I need someone to help me with this project.

5 GET SOMEONE

• • I got someone to help me with my homework.
  • I got someone to watch my kids while I went out.

6 THINK EVERYONE

• • I think everyone is talking about me.
  • I think everyone is wrong about this.

7 HELP SOMEONE

• • I helped someone find their lost dog.
  • I helped someone move into their new apartment.

8 WANT SOMEONE

• • I want someone to love me.
  • I want someone to talk to.

9 LET EVERYONE 14356 B1 Verb pattern

Governments should let everyone know that they will monitor and control the internet.

PELIC STUDENT: Chinese, Female, LEVEL 5, writing class

10 GET EVERYONE 13520

11 KEEP EVERYONE 13499

12 TELL EVERYONE 13337

13 THANK EVERYONE 12924

Japanese,Female,4,w

The Japanese thank everyone for bringing a peaceful end to living a past year and pray for happiness and good health in the coming year during New Year‘s holidays.

14 MEET SOMEONE 12769 15 ASK SOMEONE 12361 16 HIRE SOMEONE 12331 17 MAKE EVERYONE 11362 18 LET SOMEONE 11116

19 TELL SOMEONE 11063

20 HOPE EVERYONE 10495

21 WANT EVERYONE 10136 22 MAKE SOMEONE 10051 23 HOPE SOMEONE 9853 24 GIVE EVERYONE 9393 25 GIVE SOMEONE 8981 26 ENCOURAGE EVERYONE 8587

27 THINK SOMEONE 8499

28 HOPING SOMEONE 8380

29 KNOW EVERYONE 8010 30 HELP EVERYONE 7950 31 PAY SOMEONE 7221 32 HEAR SOMEONE 6843 33 FINDING SOMEONE 6532 34 SEE EVERYONE 6471

35 HEARD SOMEONE 6400

36 KILL SOMEONE 6288

37 FOUND SOMEONE 6111 38 SAW SOMEONE 5982

39 TELLING EVERYONE 5818

40 CALL SOMEONE 5427

41 PLEASE EVERYONE 5223 42 SEND SOMEONE 5139 43 LOVE SOMEONE 5108 44 MET SOMEONE 5047

45 TAKE SOMEONE 4904

46 WISH SOMEONE 4822

47 TOLD EVERYONE 4791 48 NEEDED SOMEONE 4764 49 THINK EVERYBODY 4676 50 ENSURE EVERYONE 4605

51 REMIND EVERYONE 4603

52 SUIT EVERYONE 4541

53 SEEING SOMEONE 4522 54 SHOW EVERYONE 4389 55 HELPS SOMEONE 4348 56 HELPING SOMEONE 4284 57 HIRING SOMEONE 4157 58 MAKES EVERYONE 4130 59 TELLING SOMEONE 4052 60 LIKE SOMEONE 4036 61 MEETING SOMEONE 3899 62 SEEN SOMEONE 3774 63 ASKING SOMEONE 3767 64 DATING SOMEONE 3622 65 WISH EVERYONE 3558 66 FIND SOMEBODY 3529 67 MADE EVERYONE 3398 68 GIVING EVERYONE 3330 69 NEEDS SOMEONE 3307 70 ALLOW SOMEONE 3252 71 GETTING SOMEONE 3248 72 TREAT EVERYONE 3206

73 KNEW SOMEONE 3196

74 BELIEVE EVERYONE 3190

75 GETTING EVERYONE 3141
76 GIVES EVERYONE 3117

77 HURT SOMEONE 3107

78 WANTED SOMEONE 3021 79 ASK EVERYONE 3017 80 GIVING SOMEONE 2970 81 IMAGINE SOMEONE 2949 82 MAKING EVERYONE 2935 83 BELIEVE SOMEONE 2920 84 SAY SOMEONE 2910 85 PUT SOMEONE 2823

86 PAYING SOMEONE 2805

87 BRING SOMEONE 2741

88 KILL EVERYONE 2740
89 GOT SOMEONE 2680

90 MEAN EVERYONE 2673

91 KEEPING EVERYONE 2657

92 INVITE EVERYONE 2651 93 KNOW SOMEBODY 2622

94 KNOWS SOMEONE 2621

95 CALLING SOMEONE 2604

96 SEE SOMEBODY 2555

97 MEANS SOMEONE 2534

98 THOUGHT SOMEONE 2525 99 WATCHING SOMEONE 2503

100 ALLOW EVERYONE 2477

_II someone|everyone|somebody|everybody

1 FOR EVERYONE 327458 2 FOR SOMEONE 203858 3 TO EVERYONE 186550 4 TO SOMEONE 175300 5 WITH SOMEONE 128498

6 OF SOMEONE 90103

7 BY SOMEONE 66686

Arabic,Male,5,g

Then he realized that his house was entered by someone.

*’someone entered his house’ is more natural.  And the A2 grammar is hidden under the B1 Passive.

8 FROM SOMEONE 61626 9 WITH EVERYONE 53677 10 OF EVERYONE 50970 11 FOR EVERYBODY 34815 12 LIKE EVERYONE 31697 13 LIKE SOMEONE 28674 14 ON SOMEONE 28382 15 BY EVERYONE 23639 16 IN SOMEONE 20422 17 FROM EVERYONE 19945 18 TO EVERYBODY 18497 19 ABOUT SOMEONE 18417 20 ON EVERYONE 18142 21 TO SOMEBODY 14372 22 FOR SOMEBODY 13086 23 AT SOMEONE 10786 24 IN EVERYONE 10495 25 WITH SOMEBODY 9547 26 INTO SOMEONE 8416 27 OF SOMEBODY 7109 28 WITH EVERYBODY 7072 29 OF EVERYBODY 7034

30 LIKE EVERYBODY 6927

31 AGAINST SOMEONE 5351

32 BY SOMEBODY 4978 33 FROM SOMEBODY 4569 34 ABOUT EVERYONE 4528

35 AT EVERYONE 4038

36 WITHOUT SOMEONE 3660

Arabic,Female,3,w

Life without someone who cares and loves you with unconditional love is just like an empty world.

37 LIKE SOMEBODY 3546 38 ON EVERYBODY 3202 39 ON SOMEBODY 3156 40 AS SOMEONE 3072 41 FROM EVERYBODY 3018 42 BY EVERYBODY 2790 43 OVER SOMEONE 2223 44 IN SOMEBODY 2169

45 IN EVERYBODY 1956

46 THROUGH SOMEONE 1949

47 ABOUT SOMEBODY 1822 48 BETWEEN SOMEONE 1761 49 AFTER SOMEONE 1478 50 OVER EVERYONE 1458 51 AROUND SOMEONE 1439

52 AT SOMEBODY 1367

53 ACROSS SOMEONE 1329

54 AGAINST EVERYONE 1284 55 AS EVERYONE 1276 56 ONTO SOMEONE 1265 57 ABOUT EVERYBODY 1109 58 INTO EVERYONE 1057 59 ABOVE EVERYONE 1055 60 TOWARDS SOMEONE 1051 61 THAN SOMEONE 1042 62 BEHIND SOMEONE 1030 63 INTO SOMEBODY 1010 64 UNDER SOMEONE 948 65 AT EVERYBODY 802

66 UPON SOMEONE 774

67 OFF SOMEONE 714

68 BETWEEN EVERYONE 708 69 WITHOUT EVERYONE 635 70 TOWARD SOMEONE 632 71 BEHIND EVERYONE 608 72 AGAINST SOMEBODY 608

73 THROUGH EVERYONE 594

74 AMONG EVERYONE 587

75 DESPITE EVERYONE 546 76 UPON EVERYONE 537 77 AFTER EVERYONE 498

78 BEFORE SOMEONE 492

79 INCLUDING EVERYONE 475

80 TOWARDS EVERYONE 474 81 WITHOUT SOMEBODY 455 82 VERSUS SOMEONE 446 83 OFF EVERYONE 437

84 WITHIN EVERYONE 425

85 ALONE SOMEONE 380

86 PLUS EVERYONE 378

87 AROUND EVERYONE 371

88 INCLUDING SOMEONE 371 89 INSIDE SOMEONE 364 90 ALONGSIDE SOMEONE 327 91 BEFORE EVERYONE 306 92 UP EVERYONE 295 93 AGAINST EVERYBODY 294 94 ONTO EVERYONE 287 95 PAST SOMEONE 279 96 TOWARD EVERYONE 268

97 NEAR SOMEONE 263

98 OVER EVERYBODY 254

99 PAST EVERYONE 253
100 AMONGST EVERYONE 240

A2:

across, against, alone, among, around, believe, bring, by, call, calling, hope, hoping, hurt, including, keep, keeping, kill, let, mean, means, off, over, plus,  suit, thank, through, wish, without