Indefinite pronouns: what makes them so tricky?
How can you explain the difference in meaning between the postfixes -то, -либо and -нибудь to a learner of Russian?
Indefinite pronouns are among the most challenging topics for international learners. Difficulties in learning and using them in spoken and written Russian are often caused by the absence of directly comparable forms in learners’ native languages.
First and foremost, new grammar should be introduced in manageable stages. For example, indefinite pronouns with the postfix -либо are usually taught later, after learners have mastered the difference between -то and -нибудь. Pronouns formed with the prefix кое- are normally introduced separately.
Another important principle is to avoid presenting this topic out of context, without examples or communicative situations. The teacher should consider the situations in which these pronouns occur and give learners examples that native speakers use in everyday life. Examples include: “Что-нибудь ещё?” (“Anything else?” in a restaurant), “Мне кто-нибудь звонил?” (“Did anyone call me?” at work), “Купи что-нибудь к чаю” (“Buy something to have with tea” at home), “Кто-то постучал в дверь” (“Someone knocked on the door”, for example at university, at home or at work), and “Он почему-то не сказал мне, в чём дело” (“For some reason, he didn’t tell me what was wrong”, when discussing what someone else has said).
When explaining indefinite pronouns, it is important to remember that the topic has several layers. First, learners need to distinguish the meanings associated with -то, -нибудь and -либо; second, they need to master the declension of the resulting pronouns. Some forms also have lexicalised meanings that are not directly predictable from the basic meanings of these elements.
For example, “когда-то” means “once” or “a long time ago”, whereas “когда-нибудь” usually means “sometime” or “one day”. “Как-нибудь” can mean “somehow” or “one way or another”, and in some contexts it can also refer to an unspecified future time.
It is also important to follow a spiral progression: the same grammar should be revisited at different proficiency levels, with new rules and contexts added gradually. For instance, when introducing pronouns with кое-, the teacher should review the other indefinite pronouns covered earlier.
Pronouns with -то are used when the speaker has a specific referent in mind – a person, object, place, event or other entity – but does not identify it. For example, «Кто-то звонит» (“Someone is calling”) refers to a particular person whose identity is unknown. These pronouns are especially common in affirmative sentences.
Pronouns with -нибудь typically refer to a non-specific or indeterminate referent — one that has not been identified or selected. In “Вы хотите пойти куда-нибудь?” (“Do you want to go somewhere?”), for example, many destinations are possible. “Я хочу что-нибудь посмотреть” (“I want to watch something”) means that the speaker has not yet chosen what to watch. Forms with -нибудь are particularly common in questions and other non-specific contexts.Pronouns with -либо are broadly synonymous with those formed with -нибудь, but they are characteristic of formal and official written language and are more common in written than in spoken Russian. “Кто-либо хочет высказаться?” (“Does anyone wish to speak?”) is the kind of formulation one might hear at a conference or seminar.
A comparison table with the different forms and specific examples can help make the distinctions clearer. To consolidate the material, learners should complete plenty of practice exercises focusing both on distinguishing the meanings of these pronouns and on their declension. Suitable exercises can be found in “A Living Russian Grammar” (Part 1), “Русский язык в упражнениях” (“Russian in Exercises”) and “Трудные случаи русской грамматики” (Difficult Cases of Russian Grammar).
Author: Yulia Amlinskaya, teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language and administrator of the “RFL Teachers” professional community.