Indfinite pronouns - someone, everyone, noone, anyone,

Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that refers to one or more unspecified people, places or things. These pronouns are very useful in Japanese. First we will look at pronouns that end in ka (か). If these pronouns are used alone their meaning gets changed to a question.

Alone	English	Japanese
Who	someone	誰か dareka
What	something	何か nanika
Which	one or other	どれか doreka
Where	somewhere	どこか dokoka
When	sometime/day	いつか itsuka
Why	some reason	なぜか nazeka

   Someone ate bread = dareka ga pan o tabemashita
   (誰かがパンを食べました)

   Who? = dareka? (誰か？)


   When these words are used with mo (も) their meaning changes depending on if the sentence is positive or negative. They can either include or exclude everything.

English	Japanese
Noone/everyone	誰も daremo
Nothing/everything	何も nanimo
Nothing/everything	どれも doremo
Nowhere/everywhere	どこも dokomo
Always	いつも itsumo
No reason/every reason	なぜも nazemo

   (I) always read newspaper = itsumo shinbun o yomu
   (いつも新聞を読む)




   The word itsumo almost always means always even when used with the negative. The word nanimo is not always preferred in every situation. There are different words that you can use in various sentences instead that mean the same thing.

English	Japanese
Everyone	皆 minna/mina
Everything	全部 zenbu
Totally/not at all	全然 zenzen
Absolutely/never	絶対 zettai

   (I) read it all = zenbu yomimashita (全部読みました)

   (I) can't understand at all = zenzen wakarimasen (全然分かりません)


    When you add the word demo (でも) the meaning changes to any.

English	Japanese
Anyone	誰でも daredemo
Anything	何でも nandemo
Anything	どれでも doredemo
Anywhere	どこでも dokodemo
Anytime	いつでも itsudemo
Any reason	なぜでも nazedemo

   Anything is ok = nan demo ii (何でもいい)