Indefinite Pronouns?

[Javizy]

I've been listening for over three months now and I'm very happy with the lesson content and my progress. I think it's great that this site offers not just first-class learning material, but also a constant source of inspiration, which certainly isn't an easy thing to find.

Hoooowever, there are a couple of things I'm really unclear on that I don't believe have been covered in much detail (at least in Beginner S1 & S2), and those would be indefinite pronouns and the word ever/never.

I think a lesson on indefinite pronouns, with a particular focus on 'something' and 'nothing' (for example, can they be used as nouns and adverbs like in English?) would be beneficial to everyone, since I find it hard to survive without these, especially when you consider the frequency of their use in everyday speech.

宜しくお願いします

Jim

[Jason]

何か = something
何も = in a negative sentence means "nothing", in a positive sentence means "everything"

Though I don't think I've ever heard 何も used in a positive sentence. I usually hear words like 全部 or 全て used for "everything."

In general, when these particles are are attached to interrogatives, they have the following meanings:

~か = indefinite ("someone", "something", etc)
~も = all encompassing ("everything/nothing", "everywhere/nowhere", etc)
~でも = any ("anyone", "anywhere", etc)

[Javizy]

I have heard a lot of these words in the lessons, but I was after an all-in-one reference on formation to solidify things. ありがとうございました。

[falchion321_498872]

I am going to bump this 2007 post. Found it on google. So yeah, I was searching through jpod lessons and grammar points and vocabulary, and it seems indefinite pronouns did not have their own lesson. It has kind of been sprinkled in very few lessons(Well actually only one lesson out of all the lessons dialogue archive uses 誰か, and 誰も has never been said once). There has been emphasis on the word 誰 but not any of the indefinite pronouns such as 誰か　or 誰も, or any of the other indefinite pronouns.

I got interested in this grammar point because while skimming over the 1st semester japanese textbook taught at my college, indefinite pronouns was the grammar point taught in the third lesson! (first lesson taught pronuniation).
So, I think it is particularly important to have emphasis on this grammar point.

[community.japanese]

falchion321 san,
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