§ 21. The pronoun no is negative in meaning and used only as an adjective pronoun. It may mean 'not any' or 'not a'.

e.g. He had no tie on.

They have no friends in London.

He had no desire to take decisions.

There are no letters for you today.

I have no money left.

There were no people in the hall.

No boy at the school had ever seen the sea.

He is no hero.

The girl was no beauty.

The old man was no fool.

Note the set phrase to be no good. e.g. He is no good as a pianist, ('никуда не годится')

§ 22. There are the following compound pronouns formed with some-, any- and no-:

someone — anyone — no one somebody — anybody — nobody something — anything — nothing

They are all used as noun pronouns and the rules for the use of some, any and no in different kinds of sentences hold good for them (see §§ 19-21 above).

The compounds in -one and in -body are singular in meaning and can be used only of persons, e.g. There is someone in his office. Do you hear them talking?

He'd told my landlady he was looking out for someone to paint him.

My mother wanted me to give more money to the fund than anyone in the form.

Is there anyone at home?

No one was in a hurry. No one seemed to think that to- morrow existed.

I found my mother in the kitchen. There was no one else at

home. Somebody must have been using my books. They've got all

misplaced on the shelf.

Anybody can see that the whole thing has been a failure. Did you meet anybody on your way home? Nobody can help him under the circumstances. The compounds in -one and in -body can have the form of the genitive case.

e.g. He isn't going to be in anybody's way at this hour of the night. Did you take anybody's photograph at the party?

Note. When the compounds in -one and in -body are followed by else, the geni- tive case suffix -'s is added after else. e.g. That's not my hat. It's somebody else's.

The difference between the compounds in -body and those in —

one is that the latter are, as a rule, more individualizing, i.e. the

compounds in -body refer to persons collectively, whereas those in

one refer to individuals.

Cf. Somebody is sure to get interested in the job. (=some people,

one or more persons) This is a letter from someone interested in the job. (=some

person, one person)

Nobody knew about her arrival. (= no people) No one had come to meet her. (= not a person) As a result, the compounds in -body are never followed by an of-phrase, while the compounds in -one sometimes are. e.g. Does anyone of you correspond with her family?

The compounds in -thing can be used only of things. They are also singular in meaning but they cannot have the form of the genitive case.

e.g. There is something wrong with him.

We were almost outside our house before I took in that some- thing was not right.

"Why don't you say something?" he demanded.

I'll do anything for you.

"Is there anything in the paper?" he said, as we approached the end of our silent meal.

Nothing could remove his disappointment.

The doctor could suggest nothing to me. (= The doctor could not suggest anything to me.)

He looked at me and didn't say anything.

Dirk never concealed anything.

Let me see your pictures. If there's anything I like, I'll buy it.

Note the idiomatic use of something in the following sen- tences:

e.g. He is something of a hermit. ('В нем есть что-то от отшель- ника'.)

I hope to see something of you during the holidays. ('Я наде- юсь видеть вас хоть иногда...')

Не is something in the Foreign Office. ('Он какое-то ответст- венное лицо в Министерстве иностранных дел.') Something or other prevented him from coming. ('По той или иной причине он не смог прийти. Что-то помешало ему прийти.')

It's something like two miles to the lake. (=approximately) I'll whistle the tune for you. It goes something like this. ('приблизительно вот так')

All the compound indefinite pronouns may be modified by ad- jectives which are generally placed in post-position to their head- words.

e.g. You should do something sensible about it at last. Somebody important has arrived, I'm sure. I want someone reliable to do this work. I thought he was going to tell me something painful. I thought I'd come and see if they had anything new.