❔ Grammar A2-31: Indefinite pronouns

The thirty-first material of the Fleydo A2 grammar series. It refuses to treat something, anything, nothing, somebody, nowhere and the rest as twelve separate words to memorise: they are a grid, and the material draws it — some-, any-, no- and every- across the top, -thing, -body / -one and -where down the side, twelve cells the learner can read in both directions and rebuild from memory in ninety seconds. The ending is chosen by what you mean, an object, a person or a place. The beginning is chosen by the shape of the sentence, and a four-question procedure makes that mechanical: statements take some-, real questions and sentences containing not take any-, offers and requests keep some- because they expect the answer yes, and no- carries its own negative so the verb must stay positive. Two worked examples run whole sentences through the procedure. A compare-and-verdict pair sets Jasper didn't find anything against Jasper found nothing, the same meaning in two shapes, and settles the double negative that is trap number one at this level. A separate section drills the two habits that mark good writing: these words are singular, so Everybody is here and Nothing works, and the describing word follows them, so something hot and somewhere quiet, never hot something. Practice runs to eight, seven, eight and eight explained items, ten sentence shapes to sort into some- and any-, six reveal cards, six real errors to repair and four traps. A tap-and-explain story about Lost Property Week shows seventeen of these words working in natural writing. Teacher notes give a 45-minute sequence, the empty-grid board move, and how to make a double negative visibly cancel itself out.