The classroom is empty. I can see ______ here.
somebody
anybody
everybody
nobody
Somebody, anyone, everybody, everything, etc. are indefinite pronouns. All the given in the test ANSWERS refer to people, because they have the ending –body. In the first sentence of the test we are informed that ‘The classroom is empty.’. And we understand that there is nobody in the classroom. But the next test sentence, where we should fill the gap, has no negative particle ‘not’: ‘I can see ____ here.’ Therefore,we choose ANSWER 4 – to use ‘nobody’ to refer to an absence of people. We do not use another negative in a clause with ‘nobody’: Nobody came.; Nothing happened.If the second sentence had the negative particle ‘not’: I cannot see ____ here.’, we would choose ANSWER 2 (anybody). We should know that ‘nobody’ is stronger and more definite than ‘not … anybody’: ‘I can see nobody.’ is stronger than ‘I cannot see anybody.).
