Lesson 12: Someone, Something, Somewhere

“Someone, Something, Somewhere”

Next I will teach you about how to talk about “Someone, Something, Somewhere” in daily conversation. These words are vague but indicate a specific thing or situation that is usually revealed later. You can use these in many situations like telling about a rumor, keeping a secret, or talking about your plans that you haven’t confirmed yet, or completely decided. For example in the case of telling a rumor you might say, “Someone told me that you like to sing karaoke.” If you are trying to keep a secret you might say, “I’m making something special for you for your birthday.” If you want to talk about your future plans that haven’t been decided yet you can say, “I’m planning to go somewhere over the holidays, but I’ haven’t decided.” These three words are also useful in the question form. The words are general in meaning, but they are useful to use in question form when you want get more specific information or just confirm something you already know. For example, “Did someone come break the TV?” Again, general questions can also be considered more polite in some cases. Even if the person asking thinks he knows the answer it gives the person answering the opportunity to answer either generally or specifically based on the situation or their comfort level to share details. Let’s look at some examples below so you can get used to asking or answering in this pattern.

Key words:
Did someone fart?
Did John go somewhere with her last night?
Does someone have a corkscrew I could use?
Someone used my stapler, didn’t they?
Something went wrong with the machine
Somewhere out there is the right girl for you
We can stop somewhere and buy food on the way
We can talk to someone if we need to
They were able to find something in the gift shop

Here are some situational examples:
Example: Two friends
(Casual):
w Dude, what smells?
u Did someone fart?

Example: Two co-workers
(Everyday)
w Did John go somewhere with her last night?
u No, she ended up going to dinner with her friends.

Example: Boss to manager
(Formal):
w I am concerned that we might get hungry on our drive to Las Vegas.
u We can stop somewhere and buy food on the way.