English Negative Pronouns

No one, nobody, none, nothing, neither and no are all examples of negative pronouns. Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things.

Which one we use depends on the subject of the sentence. We do not use another negative in a clause with nobody, no one or nothing. e.g “I don’t do nothing.”

Nobody and No one

Nobody and no one are used when talking about people.

“Nobody spoke English.”

“No one understood what I was saying.”

NOTHING

Use nothing for non-living things.

“His decisions have nothing to do with me.”

None

None can be used for people and non-living things.

“None of friends are going.”

“It’s none of my business what you do.”

Neither

Neither means not one thing or the other; not either.

“Neither of our ideas was any good.”

No

No, when used as a negative pronoun, is used only with nouns.

“No student is allowed to talk.”

“No smoking.”