something

Q: Is it correct to say "I saw a something strange."?

No — say "I saw something strange.". As a pronoun, it does not take an article like 'a' or 'the'.

Definition

pron. a thing that you do not name specifically. You use it when you do not know exactly what the thing is or when the name is not important.

pron. an unspecified or unknown thing, amount, or event. Functions as an indefinite pronoun and typically takes a singular verb.

simple

“I have something in my eye.”

contextual

“She felt something cold touch her shoulder while she was walking through the dark hallway.”

complex

“The researchers noticed something unusual in the data, which prompted them to restart the entire experiment from the beginning to ensure accuracy.”

Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word “something” in context.

01. something else 02. something like 03. something different 04. something new 05. something that's 06. something bigger 07. something special 08. something far

Always treated as singular; any following adjectives must be placed after the word (e.g., 'something blue' rather than 'blue something').

I saw a something strange.

I saw something strange.

As a pronoun, it does not take an article like 'a' or 'the'.

From Middle English somþyng, some-thing, som thing, sum thinge, sum þinge, from Old English sum þing (literally “some thing”), equivalent to some + thing. Compare Old English āwiht (“something”, literally “some thing, any thing”), Swedish någonting (“something”, literally “some thing, any thing”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

anything everything nothing somebody someone something else somewhere thing