Indefinite pronouns refer to a group of people or things whose number is not specified.
A small group of indefinite pronouns only occur on their own, most notably iedereen ('everyone'), iemand ('someone'), niemand (no-one), iets ('something'), niets ('nothing') en men ('one' in the sense of 'people in general') .
| Iemand moet de afwas doen! |
| Someone has to do the dishes! |
| Ik heb niemand gezien. |
| I haven't seen anyone. |
| In Vlaanderen en Nederland spreekt men Nederlands. |
| In Flanders and the Netherlands people speak Dutch. |
However, most indefinite pronouns can be used both independently and to qualify a >>noun. Here are two examples of the latter, where andere ('other') qualifies steden ('cities'), and sommige ('some') qualifies methoden. Note that they behave like >>adjectives and decline with the nouns they qualify.
| Met name onderdak en vervoer kosten in de Britse hoofdstad meer dan in andere steden. |
| Especially accommodation and transport cost more in the Britsish capital than in other cities. |
| Uit onderzoek is gebleken dat sommige methoden van detectives te veel inbreuk maken op het privéleven van de onderzochte personen. |
| Research shows that some methods employed by detectives infringe too much on the private lives of the people under surveillance. |
Ieder and elk (both maning ‘each') occur with singular nouns and behave like >>adjectives declining with the nouns they qualify. Iedere/elke is used when the noun it precedes is a de -word and ieder/elk is used when the noun is a het -word. In the two sayings below huisje is a het -word, while vogel is a de -word:
| Ieder huisje heeft zijn kruisje. |
| Literally: Every house has its cross. = Every man has his cross to bear. |
| Elke vogel zingt zoals hij gebekt is. |
| Literally: Every bird sings as it has its beak. = A bird is known by its note and a man by his talk. |
If an indefinite pronoun is used independently to refer to people, -n is added in writing (in standard spoken Dutch this - n is in fact hardly ever pronounced). If an indefinite pronoun is used independently to refer to objects or animals, there is no -n . In the first example below beiden is used becuase it refers to Richard Krajicek and Sjeng Schalken. In the second example sommige occurs without the end -n because it refers to dieren.
| Richard Krajicek en Sjeng Schalken zijn er allebei niet in geslaagd om de halve finales van Wimbledon te bereiken. Beiden trokken in een vijfsetter aan het kortste eind. |
| Neither Richard Krajicek nor Sjeng Schalken have managed to reach the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Both drew the shortest straw in a five set match. |
| Veel dieren waren gespecialiseerde planteneters, maar sommige ontwikkelden zich tot roofdieren. |
| Many animals were specialised plant eaters, but some developed into predators. |
Both examples show clearly that the use of >>cohesive devices (in this case the independently used indefinite pronouns) makes the texts more readable and interesting.
Click >here for more information on the Dutch equivalents of the pronoun 'all'.
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