In affirmative sentences that follow an implicit negation (like 'The classroom is empty.'), we use 'nobody' to indicate the absence of people.
Em frases afirmativas que seguem uma negação implícita (como 'The classroom is empty.'), usamos 'nobody' para indicar ausência de pessoas.
| Task | The classroom is empty. I can see ______ here. |
|---|---|
| Answer | 4 |
| a | somebody |
| b | anybody |
| c | everybody |
| d | nobody |
| comment | Somebody, anyone, everybody, everything, etc. are indefinite pronouns. All the given in the test ANSWERS refer to people, because they have the ending –body. In the first sentence of the test we are informed that ‘The classroom is empty.’. And we understand that there is nobody in the classroom. But the next test sentence, where we should fill the gap, has no negative particle ‘not’: ‘I can see ______ here.’ Therefore,we choose ANSWER 4 – to use ‘nobody’ to refer to an absence of people. We do not use another negative in a clause with ‘nobody’: Nobody came.; Nothing happened.If the second sentence had the negative particle ‘not’: I cannot see ______ here.’, we would choose ANSWER 2 (anybody). We should know that ‘nobody’ is stronger and more definite than ‘not … anybody’: ‘I can see nobody.’ is stronger than ‘I cannot see anybody.). |
| topic | pronouns |
| level | 1 |
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