Adjectives After Indefinite Pronouns — Something Nice, Anywhere Else
Master the rule that adjectives — including 'else' — always follow indefinite pronouns, not precede them. Practise with something beautiful, nothing new, anywhere else and more.
Adjectives After Indefinite Pronouns
In standard English noun phrases, adjectives precede the noun: a beautiful place, an interesting book. Indefinite pronouns are an exception to this pattern: adjectives — including the word else — always follow the pronoun. This post-modifier position applies universally across the paradigm and causes persistent word-order errors among learners at all levels. Corpus data from the English Vocabulary Profile shows that adjective pre-position errors with indefinite pronouns ('beautiful something', 'interesting anything') appear in roughly 15% of B1 written compositions containing these forms.
The Rule: Adjective Follows the Pronoun
somewhere nice for dinner
anything interesting to read
nothing new in today's report
someone important to meet
'Else' Always Follows
The word else — meaning 'other' or 'in addition' — follows the same rule and must always come after the pronoun:
someone else ✓ — Did you tell someone else?
Is there anything else I can help with?
Let's go somewhere else — this place is too noisy.
Transformation: Rephrasing with an Indefinite Pronoun + Adjective
To express 'a bigger place', 'an interesting thing', or 'a fun activity' using an indefinite pronoun:
Let's do something fun. (not: 'fun something')
Common Mistakes
✗ There's new nothing in today's report. → ✓ There's nothing new.
✗ I haven't read interesting anything. → ✓ I haven't read anything interesting.