Everybody one word or two

Everyone (one word) should be used when referring to all the people within a group. A good way to remember this is to note that the pronoun everyone may be replaced by everybody.

Can every day be two words?

“Everyday” (one word) is an adjective to describe the average, mundane, quotidian, run-of-the-mill, and so on. Example: I wear my everyday shoes to work. “Every day” (two words) is an expression that means each day and should be used for everything other than the quotidian. Example: I wear shoes to work every day.

How do you write everyday correctly?

How to know when to use every day or everyday. To know which of the words to use in your sentence, replace the word(s) with each day. If it sounds correct, then write every day (two words). If it doesn’t sound correct (usually because it is before a noun) then use everyday (one word).

Is every day together or separate?

So what’s the difference? Well, “every day” is a phrase, with “day” as the noun. Together, the phrase describes frequency, just like “every time” or “every year.” It means the same thing as “each day.” “Everyday” is a word of its own, an adjective that modifies something else.

Does everyday go together?

Every day, when used as two words, is an adverbial phrase, meaning each day; daily. The first word every is an adjective and the second word day is a noun, and together they function as an adverbial phrase. Therefore, it does not have the same function as everyday.

Can everyone be used for 2 people?

Is Everyone Singular or Plural? You might think that since everyone refers to all persons in a group that it would require a plural verb to follow it. This is not the case. Although everyone sounds like a lot of people, it is a singular noun that requires a singular verb.

Is everybody a proper noun?

The word ”everyone” is not a noun, so it cannot be a proper noun.

What does everyone’s mean?

Everyone’s means everyone IS

Can I say everyone’s?

2 Answers. As Robusto says, you should use everyone’s. Neither everyones’ nor everyones is a word. Note that everyone is always singular and cannot be pluralized, which means everyones is incorrect.

Is everyone’s proper?

Everyone is one of those words which means lots of people but is always singular, so there is no such plural as “everyones”. For your example sentence: “Everyone’s fine at home” would be correct, as it is short for “Everyone is fine at home”. The contraction of “everyone is” is “everyone’s”.

Do everyone’s or does everyone’s?

“Everyone” being singular, you should use “does”.

Do anyone or does anyone grammar?

‘Anybody’ is a third person singular form and takes -s in the present simple tense. That’s why the question form requires -s and ‘Does anybody’ is correct. The same would apply to ‘Does anyone’, ‘Does anything’ etc.

How do you use everyone’s in a sentence?

Everyone’s in a sentence | everyone’s example sentences

1. Everyone’s eyes was on them.
2. The Nexus creates everyone’s idea.
3. Any harvest was everyone’s harvest.
4. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the skies.
5. Everyone’s opinion was contrary to mine.
6. Yes, other than everyone’s god, Money.
7. And they shouldn’t take everyone’s money.

Is it everyone’s face or everyone’s faces?

Re: Everyone’s faces/face light up. The second, because ‘everyone’ is singular.

Is their faces correct?

‘They wash their face’ is not technically correct but is often used when the subject is just one person, but the gender is unknown or irrelevant. E.g. ‘when a person gets up in the morning, they usually wash their face.

What is the plural of face?

1 face /ˈfeɪs/ noun. plural faces. 1 face. /ˈfeɪs/ plural faces.

What is the plural for day?

plural of day (“day”)

What is plural for nose?

1 nose /ˈnoʊz/ noun. plural noses.

What is the plural of baby?

4) In the example of baby’s and babies’, the apostrophe is added before the s to indicate a singular possession (e.g. the baby’s changing room). It is added after the s when referring to the plural, babies (e.g. the babies’ changing room).

What is the possessive form of girl?

When a plural noun ends in s, form the possessive by adding an apostrophe. For example, girls -> girls’.

How do you spell baby?

Correct spelling for the English word “Babies” is [bˈe͡ɪbɪz], [bˈe‍ɪbɪz], [b_ˈeɪ_b_ɪ_z] (IPA phonetic alphabet).

How do you spell Baby Yoda?

Baby Yoda is the popular name for a character known as the Child in the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. He is a member of the same species as the beloved Star Wars character, Yoda.

What do we call the babies?

A baby is a human younger than about 1 or 2 years old. For example, infant may be used until the baby can walk, while some use “infant” until the baby is one year old. From birth until 3 months of age, a baby can be called a newborn.

What age is no longer a baby?

Infants can be considered children anywhere from birth to 1 year old. Baby can be used to refer to any child from birth to age 4 years old, thus encompassing newborns, infants, and toddlers.

Is everyone one word or two words?

Everyone (one word) should be used when referring to all the people within a group. A good way to remember this is to note that the pronoun everyone may be replaced by everybody. See the examples below: The new protocols will affect everyone positively.

Which is correct everyone or everybody?

There is no difference in meaning between everyone and everybody, but everyone is more common in written English, and everybody is more common in spoken English. You can also use everyone and everybody to talk about people in general.

What does @everyone mean?

Everyone means all the people in a group, or all the people in the world.

What word is everyone?

Everyone, everybody, everything and everywhere are indefinite pronouns. We use them to refer to a total number of people, things and places. We write them as one word: His name was Henry but everyone called him Harry.

How is everyone used in a sentence?

Everyone: Indefinite Pronoun Everyone is the correct word to use when you’re talking about a nonspecific group of people. It is an indefinite pronoun that takes the place of nouns and noun phrases in a sentence.

How is or how is everyone?

Everybody/everyone is is correct because although you are talking about a group of people, it has been made into one singular group.

What does everyone mean in discord?

What is Discord @everyone? Discord @everyone is a feature that allows you to notify every member of the channel when sending a message. In other words, if you send a message that includes the text ‘@everyone’, you would be sending a notification to everyone who is a part of the channel.

What is another word for open to everyone?

What is another word for accessible to everyone?

open	public
open-door	unconditional
unqualified	welcoming
free-for-all	open to the public
free to all	one-size-fits-all

57 more rows

How is everyone at home or how are everyone at home?

How is everyone at home? is a polite, acceptable way to ask about how the other person’s family and household is doing. You could also ask directly: How is your family? Informally, «How is everyone?» works fine if you’re familiar enough with the person’s family as not to require clarification.

What is difference between all and everybody?

Everybody came! So, in the first example, we have the subject + all + the main verb. It’s not correct to say ‘all came’ without using the subject ‘they’ before all. But, if you want to make the sentence shorter you can use everybody or everyone as the subject of the sentence — so, everybody + the main verb.

Is anyone or are anyone?

The one. word form anyone is used to mean «any person.» The two. word … Usage Note: Anyone and anybody are singular terms and always take a singular verb.

What is used with everyone?

According to the definition, an indefinite pronoun like everybody/everyone refers to one or more things, objects and people. … In the first case everyone/everybody (indefinite ‘singular’ pronoun) uses singular verb . i.e. loves, which is a correct way to use everybody. In the second case verb used is plural .

How do you use everything in a sentence?

everything

1. The poor man wants much, the miser everything.
2. Everything comes to him who waits.
3. A little of everything, nothing at all.
4. A place for everything and everything in its place.
5. Money is something, but no everything.
6. Money lost, little lost; time lost, everything lost.

More items…

Part two in my two part series where we’ll look at some words that can either be one word, or sometimes two! If you missed part one, check it out here. Although it seems like there are a few to get through here, most follow the same sort of format.

Contents:

Anybody vs Any body

The word you probably want here is anybody. Think of a horror movie—any horror movie—and someone hears something in the distance. They say “Is anybody there?”
Or maybe you need volunteers to join mathletes so you make a sign saying “Mathletes registration. Anybody welcome to join.”
You get the gist.

There are only two use cases I can think of where you might use any body. One is if you’re dealing with bodies, e.g. a funeral director, someone who works at a mortuary, a hospital worker even.
“Which body are you looking for?”
“Any body.”
The other is if you’re talking about a body of water. Any body of water.

Those two seem like unlikely scenarios so you most likely mean anybody.

Anyone vs Any one

Anyone means the same thing as anybody. That trick when a telemarketer calls you and you answer the phone and just don’t say anything? You’ll probably hear “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Any one is used when you’re giving a choice between a range of variables but you can choose only one:

• If any one person objects to this wedding, may they speak now or forever hold their peace
• If you want to have a chat about the new policy, please come and see any one of us in HR
• Choose any one of these pizzas as your free one
• Any one of you will do to fill in for mathletes.

If you replace any of those above with anyone, your sentence won’t make much sense:

• Choose anyone of these pizzas as your free one.
  Yeah nah, no good.
• Come and see anyone of us in HR.
  Nope. Not quite right. However, if you wrote ‘anyone in HR’, this would make sense!

Life hack: Most of the time you can replace any one with any:

• Any of you will do to fill in
• If any person objects to this wedding…

Somebody vs Some body

Somebody can sometimes mean the same thing as anybody:

• Is somebody there?
• Is there somebody at the door?

But generally it gives a touch more specification than just anybody:

• Somebody at work played a prank on me and changed my desktop background. I guess it serves me right for not locking my computer when I went to the bathroom.
• I waved to somebody on my walk as they waved at me first.
• Somebody had to tell her the truth!

Try and replace the somebody with anybody. It won’t quite work. You’re providing a little more clarification than just anybody without actually specifying the person.

Some body would work in the same way as above with Any body and you’d only use this if you’re referring to bodies. I honestly cannot think of a sentence though. Maybe if someone has a body to pick up from the coroner but doesn’t quite know who they’re meant to be picking up:
“Yeah, I’m here to pick up some body.”

If this is not the scenario you find yourself in, it’s quite probable that you mean somebody.

Someone vs Some one

Someone means the same thing as somebody:

• Someone stole my lunch from the office fridge
• I thought I saw someone hiding in the bushes

Some one is not really used these days. Literally the only example I could find from google is “Some one thousand people attended the concert.”

So I guess unless your sentence resembles this, it’s highly likely you mean someone.

Nobody vs No body

Nobody means the same thing as no one:

• Nobody came to the party
• You’re just a nobody!
• I made an outgoing call at work but there was nobody on the other end.

Now, why is nobody one word and no one two? That seems contradicting doesn’t it? It definitely is not noone! Oh well. Take it up with whoever invented the English language.

With no body, we have the same scenario with dealing with bodies:

• We went to the suspect’s apartment but we found no body there.

This sentence varies considerably compared to:

• We went to the suspect’s apartment but we found nobody there.

Everybody vs Every body

Once again we have the same body scenario with every body, however, this one is a little more common. Gyms and fitness centres will often use little slogans and taglines like “Fitness for every body”. It’s clearly a play on words but it works, cause it’s referring to your body. So I guess watch out for this one because this one you might see more often that the other bodies I spoke of before. If you want to use the example of the person in the previous paragraph who’s on his first week of picking up bodies, he might say “I’m here to pick up every body”.

On song titles again, R.E.M.‘s song Everybody Hurts wouldn’t quite have had the same meaning had it been called Every Body Hurts. That might be a good name for a Health Fund campaign or something though….

One last incorrect example:

Please can every body confirm they’ve read the email.

No. Unless you’re employing dead bodies to work for you and respond to emails, you mean everybody.

Everyone vs Every one

Everyone means exactly the same thing as everybody:

• Everyone laughed at my accent on the first day of school
• This policy change will affect everyone who works here.

Every one is similar to Any one we saw above, but this time, you’re referring to each individual item, as opposed to choosing only one. Let’s use some similar examples as above:

• Come and have a chat to every one of us in HR.
  This means that you need to chat to each person who works in HR. Ooh, sounds serious.
• Every one of these pizzas is gluten free.
  This means that every pizza is gluten free.
• Every one of you who applied have made it to mathletes.
  I guess you could say that everyone who applied made it.

Let’s look at an incorrect example:

The judges will taste each and everyone of your dishes.

That doesn’t make much sense. It clearly should be every one as we’re talking about each individual dish. Now, if it said:

The judges will taste everyone

that makes sense, but is wrong for so many other reasons…

Life hack: If you get confused, try replacing your everyone/every one with each. If you can, then it must be every one:

• Each of you who applied
• Each of our pizzas.

In case you missed it above, the opposite of everyone is no one. Not noone, not no-one, but no one. As you can see, this contradicts with this whole one word/two words post. So whether you use it like this:

I went to my lecture but no one was there

or like this:

No one person can ever make you feel that way

It’s still two words. So I guess this word is an exception to the rule.

Anyway vs Any way

Anyway means regardless, or nonetheless:

• Mum told me not to eat all the sweets but I did it anyway
• So I kissed him on the first date. What’s the big deal anyway?

Anyway is used a lot in casual conversation, especially at the beginning of a sentence. Used in this way, it’s used to continue an interrupted story, or to sometimes change the topic… You’ll often use it when things get awkward…. Check out the hilarious skit from Key and Peele, below.

• Anyway, enough about me, how are you? How’s your new job?
• Anyway, what were we discussing? Ah yes, that meeting we have to attend…

Any way means by any manner or any means:

• I don’t know of any way that can be done
• I need to get my son to read and I’m bribing him any way I can
• Is there any way we can move past this?
• Let me know if I can help in any way.

Anymore vs Any more

This one is very similar to Anyway/Any way which we just looked at.

Anymore refers to time. How many times did you get in a stupid squabble with your friend in primary school and you said “I’m not friends with (name) anymore”? It basically means something that is no longer the case. That’s not to say you didn’t go running back to your best friend the very next day. But of course now we’re older and wiser, we don’t have these silly little squabbles anymore. See what I did there? Think of anymore to mean any longer. I don’t have feelings for my teacher anymore = I don’t have feelings for my teacher any longer.

Any more refers to more in quantity:

• Mum, do we have any more biscuits?
• I don’t want to cause any more trouble
• Does anyone need any more information?
• I don’t like this decision any more than you
• Taking the shortcut wouldn’t save me any more time than taking the normal route.

Let’s use an example of each:

Would you like any more bread? No; I don’t like bread anymore.

But be careful of scenarios like this:

• I don’t want any more to do with you
• I don’t want to see you anymore

If you get stuck, just use my any longer case, above:

• I don’t want any longer to do with you.
  No, that doesn’t quite work, so it can’t be anymore and must be any more.
• I don’t want to see you any longer.
  Yes, that makes sense, therefore anymore is correct here.

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Now I bet you’re thinking “What was with the header image? Has he forgotten to mention that?” No; no I haven’t. Everyone knows spreadsheets is one word. Spread sheets would probably refer to you laying out your bed sheets. Maybe? Even if I google it, it corrects me to spreadsheets. Let’s face it, it’s highly likely that this mug is designed for some IT nerd and/or office worker who likes to use Microsoft Excel. And who doesn’t?? Therefore, spreadsheets it is!

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Related topic: Alot vs A lot

Hello English learners!

I often get asked the following question by many of my students:

What is the difference between everyone and everybody?

The answer is a little complex but we can handle it. To help me illustrate this difference I am going to use the words someone and somebody.

If I use the sentence:

• Someone is at the door.

 Someone is from a group of people that I know.

The chances that I know this person are very high. I most likely know this person. This would be appropriate to say if I were having a party and invited my friends. I would not know exactly who was at my door at that moment, but from all the people that I know in my life, this person is most likely from that group.

So, the word one indicates a person from the group of all of the people that I know in my life, my circle of friends or family.

For example,

• Everyone likes Nutella. (You mean to say that many people like Nutella)

On the other hand, if I use the sentence:

• Somebody is at the door.

Somebody could anybody in the world.

I am not expecting visitors and this is a surprise for me. I am indicating that I have no idea who could be at the door. It could be a salesman or a person asking for money. The word body indicates a person from the world.

• Everybody likes Nutella. (You are putting more emphasis on the number of people that like Nutella)

I would like to say that if you analyze the thought process or the psychology of the person, then you would understand a little more of what they are thinking.

Looking at the two sentences:

• Everyone likes Nutella.
• Everybody likes Nutella.

They both mean the same thing essentiality.

No one would argue with you about which one was correct. (Unless they did not like Nutella; then they would say it is not true.)

From the grand point of view, most English speakers don’t pay attention to which word they use.

However, from a subconscious level many English speakers would use one when they might be acquainted with the person and body when it could be a person that they are not expecting or do not know.

Another difference between the two words everyone and everybody is formality.

In more formal situations, it is better to use everyone.

[At a party where you might not know all the people at the party] Everyone should try the dessert. 

Everybody sounds like you are talking about people who have bodies (which everyone has a body). “Everybody” is more appropriate when talking to friends.

[At a restaurant with your friends] Everybody, let’s take a picture.

There is no big difference in saying everyone or everybody. Everyone is more formal and everybody is more informal.

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More for you:
Separate vs Seperate. What is the difference?
Next To vs In Front Of – MyEnglishTeacher.eu

English has a lot of confusing words among its ranks, and, if we’re not careful in our writing, we can easily find ourselves misusing them, sometimes without even knowing it. A couple of words that I get questions about regularly are everyone vs. every one.

What exactly is the difference between these words? Is there one? Or can they be used interchangeably? Unfortunately, they cannot be used interchangeably, so in order to keep our writing precise and accurate, it’s important to understand the difference.

Today I want to highlight the uses of these words, their functions within a sentence, and give you a few tricks to remember the difference.

When to Use Everyone

Everyone is an indefinite pronoun and carries the meaning of every person; everybody. It is used to refer to all persons in a group. For example,

• Everyone at the office today was making me mad.
• The concert was awesome; everyone was there.
• Can you let everyone know the food is here?

Outside examples,

• You’re one of us now, and it’s important that you tell everyone you know about it immediately and purchase the required gear. –The New Yorker
• Everyone believes in here that we can do it, so we just have to go down there, step up, give our best effort and try to get one. –The New York Times

Indefinite pronouns refer to non-specific persons or things, and you can see this in the above examples. Everyone is used to refer to all the people in the group, not a specific or definite individual.

When to Use Every One

Every one, as you can see, is two words. It is an emphatic way of saying each.

If you are referring to each individual item or the individuals who make up a group, you will want to use the two-word every one. For example,

• God bless us, every one!
• Every one of the brothers was there last night.
• Every one of these apples is rotten.
• Each and every one of the cards you gave me was worthless.

If you ever find yourself using the phrase “each and every one,” as the above sentence does, you should never substitute the single-word “everyone.” Everyone refers to all members of a group and the word “each” tells us that what follows is meant to be specific.

Is Everyone Singular or Plural?

You might think that since everyone refers to all persons in a group that it would require a plural verb to follow it. This is not the case.

Although everyone sounds like a lot of people, it is a singular noun that requires a singular verb. For example,

• Everyone was at the beach yesterday afternoon. CORRECT
• Everyone were at the beach yesterday afternoon. WRONG

Problem Sentences

Since everyone is a singular noun, you will want to make sure other pronouns that may follow it in the sentence are correct. For example, avoid sentences like the following,

• Everyone in the class asked for their grades.

Instead, the sentences should appear as follows,

• Everyone in the class asked for his or her grades.

Or, in order to avoid the cumbersome his/her wording, you could eliminate the use of everyone altogether.

• All of the students asked for their grades.
• The students all asked for their grades.

Remember the Difference

The one-word everyone can be substituted with everybody. Try substituting this word to check yourself if you are ever in doubt.

The two-word every one can be substituted with each. Try substituting each into your sentence and if it still makes sense, you will want to choose the two-word option.

Summary

Whether or not to use every one or everyone can alter the meaning of your sentences, so it’s important to use the two words correctly.

Everyone, one word, is a pronoun equivalent to everybody. It refers to all persons in a group.

Every one, two words, is a different way to say “each.”

• #1

Good day!

When can I use «all» and when «everybody/everyone«? For example:

(1a) Everybody enjoyed the concert.
(1b) All enjoyed the concert.
As I understand, (1a) is correct and (1b) is not. Could you tell me why?

(2a) Everybody of them enjoyed the concert.
(2b) All of them enjoyed the concert.
As I understand, (2b) is correct and (2a) is not. Could you tell me why?

(3a) Everybody who liked rock enjoyed the concert.
(3b) All who liked rock enjoyed the concert.
As I understand, (3a) & (3b) are both correct. Could you tell me why?

Thanks!

• #2

I would call 1b correct, but the phrasing is less common, sounding slightly old-fashioned to my ear.
«Everybody of them» is not idiomatic.
As with the first example, both formulations are acceptable, and in this case both are idiomatic.

• #3

Is there any rule to identify the correctness of «all» and «everybody/everyone»?

Thanks!

• #4

Ask Paul about rules….

• #5

Everybody of them enjoyed the concert.

«Everybody of them» is not idiomatic.

dictionary.cambridge.org:
We use «every one of» before pronouns and determiners:
When Jenkins joined the bank, one of his first acts was to make every one of the bank’s employees reapply for their jobs.

By this logic, are the next sentences correct and if not, then why:
Every body of them enjoyed the concert.
Every one of them enjoyed the concert.

Thanks!

• #6

‘Every one’ (two words) is different from’everyone’ (one word). ‘Everyone’ would be wrong in your example sentence.

‘ . . . one of his first acts was to make every one of the bank’s employees reapply . . . ‘
‘ . . . one of his first acts was to make everyone of the bank’s employees reapply . . . ‘.

‘ . . . one of his first acts was to make everyone at the bank reapply. . . ‘.

It’s the same with ‘every body’ (two words) and ‘everybody’ (one word).

• #7

‘Every one’ (two words) is different from’everyone’ (one word).

It’s the same with ‘every body’ (two words) and ‘everybody’ (one word).

Do you mean that the next sentences are correct?:
Every body of them enjoyed the concert.
Every one of them enjoyed the concert.

Thanks!

• #8

The second one is correct, but the first isn’t.

Neither ‘every body’ nor ‘everybody’ works here.

Some words are tricky because they sound the same in speaking, but they could be spelled as one word or two. For example, is it “alright” or “all right”… “awhile” or “a while”… “anytime” or “any time”? Here’s a cheat sheet for you of a few of these tricky words! 🙂

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ALLOT (one word) = assign, distribute [We need to allot one hour for the presentation.]

A LOT (two words) = a considerable quantity [I have a lot of chocolate hidden in my bottom drawer.]

* NOTE: alot is not a word, neither is awholelot or anawfullot. 😉

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ALREADY (one word) = previously [We already donated money to the fake cause before it was discovered.]

ALL READY (two words) = everyone is ready [“Are you all ready for the party to start?”]

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ALRIGHT (one word) = okay, acceptable [“It’s alright with me if you stop by later.”]

ALL RIGHT (two words) = entirely, completely right [“That was a terrible fall! Are you all right?”]

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ANYMORE (one word) = any longer, now, still [My elderly uncle doesn’t travel anymore.]

ANY MORE (two words) = something additional or further (refers to quantities) [I don’t want any more broccoli!]

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ANYONE (one word) = any person (always refers to people) [It’s so simple that anyone could do it.]

ANY ONE (two words) = a specific person or thing, usually “of” follows it [Any one of my brothers could help out.]

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ANYTIME (one word) = any time whatsoever [“Call me anytime.”]

ANY TIME (two words) = a particular amount of time [“Did you call me any time yesterday?”]

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AWHILE (one word) = an adverb; for a short period of time [“I know we’ll see whales here. Let’s wait awhile.”]

A WHILE (two words) = a noun; a period of time [It’s been a while since we’ve gone sailing.]

* TIP: Here’s how to tell which word to use—substitute “slowly” or “quietly” in place. If the substitute adverb sounds fine, then use awhile (one word).

Let’s wait quietly. (It works, so use one word.) = Let’s wait awhile.
Let’s wait for quietly. (It doesn’t work, so use two words.) = Let’s wait for a while.
It’s been quietly since we’ve gone sailing. (It doesn’t work, so use two words.) It’s been a while since we’ve gone sailing.

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EVERYDAY (one word) = daily, routinely, ordinarily [I take my vitamins everyday unless I’m traveling.]

EVERY DAY (two words) = each day [I take my vitamins every day, no matter what.]

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EVERYONE (one word) = every person, everybody [Tell everyone on the team to wear their new jerseys tomorrow.]

EVERY ONE (two words) = each individual person or item [Every one of the jerseys has a different number on it.]

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FACEUP/FACEDOWN (one word) = with the face up or the face down [He was lying faceup, but she was lying facedown.]

FACE UP/FACE DOWN (two words) = deal with or confront something or someone [I had to face up to my fears. No one wanted to face down the school bully because he always won.]

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NEVER MIND = Always two words

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SETUP (one word) = configuration, assembly, arrangement [The setup of the movie equipment took all day.]

SET UP (two words) = to place, to assemble, to bring about [They set up a statue in the center of the park.]

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SOMEDAY (one word) = at a future, indefinite time [Someday I’ll buy a house. I’ll start a diet someday.]

SOME DAY (two words) = a specific day that is unknown or unspecified [I will buy a house some day after the new year when I get my bonus. I’m going to see the doctor some day next month.]

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SOMETIME (one word) = at some point, at an unspecified time [I’ll read that book sometime. Give me a call sometime.]

SOME TIME (two words) = a long period of time [I have been working on my novel for some time. For some time, humans have benefited from technology.]

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Savvy Writer Tip:

Speaking and writing are two different things. Some words sound exactly the same but have completely different meanings when written as one word or two. Savvy writers use the correct spelling and definition of every one of these words! 🙂

EACH and EVERY

Which one is it then? Each or every? It’s pretty easy to confuse these two words. They look similar, they sound similar but they’re not always used in the same way.

So in this lesson, we’ll go over the subtle and important differences between these two words. We’ll talk about the different situations where you would use one or the other and of course, we’ll practise a little bit together later in the lesson. We really would love to make my lessons for you very practical so we’ll get to that later on.

Now, let’s get started!

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‘Each’ and ‘every’ can both be used with singular nouns.

• Every day
• Every house
• Each person
• Each cat

All of these nouns are singular. It’s just one person or one thing. Therefore, the words ‘each’ and ‘every’ can be used with singular nouns that are part of a group but there is a subtle difference.

II) Each

When we use ‘each’, it emphasises or it puts more attention on the individual, the one person or the one thing.

• Each person came to the dinner party brought a dish.

=> More than one person came to the dinner party. In fact, there was a whole group of people who came to the dinner party. But each singular individual person bought a dish or a plate of food to share. So he bought a dish, she bought dessert, she bought a salad, he bought some cheese and biscuits. So everyone has brought something.

III) Every

Now let’s compare this to ‘every’. ‘Every’ refers to a group of individual objects, or people as one group altogether. The attention is on the group as a whole.

• Everyone who came to the dinner party brought a dish.

So a group of people came to the dinner party and all of these people brought a dish. However, by using ‘every’, we are putting emphasis on the group as a whole. Everybody here bought a dish.

Now in many situations, just like our above example about the dinner party, ‘each’ and ‘every’ can be used interchangeably with just a small difference in meaning. You could use either of them and the difference is very subtle.

But let’s look at a few more examples to help make that clear.

• Every business owner is clever.

=> We are putting all business owners together in one group there and we are  making a generalisation about the group – all business owners. And we are saying that as a group, all of those business owners are clever.

• Each teacher at our school is creative.

=> Here we are talking about the individual teachers at our school, each one of them is creative. Not all teachers in general, not the group together, but each teacher separately at the school is creative.

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IV) Everyone/ Every one

Before we move on, we want to point out something really important, something you might have been thinking about already.

But did you notice in my earlier examples that we wrote ‘everyone’ instead of ‘every one’?

So if you want to talk about a group of people as a whole, every person. It’s correct to use ‘every one’ or ‘every body’. Every person is every one or every body.

Now, ‘every one’ written in two words, it actually puts more attention on the individuals in the group and so it becomes a synonym closer to ‘each’, right?

Let’s think of an example.

At school, did you have a teacher that you were kind of scared of? Like imagine them saying:

• Every one of you needs to arrive at 7 A.M tommorrow.
  => The emphasis is on the individual.

But if they said:

• Everyone needs to arrive at 7 A.M tommorrow.
  => The emphasis is on the group. And it’s a little less scary.

It is a subtle difference but it’s quite powerful in meaning.

Notice as well that even though we’re talking about a group of people, ‘everyone’ and ‘everybody’ use a singular verb form because we’re talking about the group as a singular thing. Not all of the individuals in it but we’re talking about the group.

A nice trick to check if you should be using ‘everyone’ or ‘every one’ is to see if everybody works in that sentence because then ‘everyone’ with one word is also correct. If everybody doesn’t work in the sentence then ‘every one’ with two words is the correct option.

Let’s look at an example.

• I called everybody to invite them over. (Correct)
  => I called everyone to invite them over.

• I called everybody of my friends to invite them over. (Incorrect)
  => I called every one/ each one of my friends to invite them over.

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So let’s do a quick recap before we move on.

• We use ‘each’ and ‘every’ with singular nouns.
• ‘Each’ puts more emphasis on the individual within the group
• ‘Every’ puts our attention on the group as a whole.

V) Others differences between Each and Every

There are still some important things that you need to know.

1, Each + only two things

When you’re talking about exactly two things, you can use ‘each’.

Not when you’re talking about three or four or ten things, only when you’re talking about two.

• I’ve got an earring in each ear.

=> I’ve got two ears, so I can use ‘each’ to talk about my ears, but I can’t use ‘every’.

If you say “I have an earring in every ear”, it sounds really quite strange like, how many ears do you have?

2, Each + Plural nouns

Earlier we have told you that ‘each’ and ‘every’ are usually used with singular nouns but there is a little exception or a rule that we’ve got to talk about here.

‘Every’ can’t be used with plural nouns, but ‘each’ can be used with plural nouns with a small change in form.

To use ‘each’ with plural nouns, you need to add the word ‘of’.

Form: Each + of + plural noun.

We can’t say:

• Each cats have a red collar.

But we can say:

• Each cat has a red collar.
• Each of the cats have a red collar.

There is not much difference in meaning between these two correct sentences but it’s important to notice that we do include the article ‘the’ here.

It’s really important. You must use it. Unless you’re using the plural determiners or pronouns like ‘us’ or ‘them’ or ‘these’ or ‘those’, we don’t need to use the article then.

Right so let’s look at a couple of examples of how they’re used.

• Each of us won a prize.
• Each of the kids was given a balloon.
• Did Sarah make each of those?

3, Every + time expressions

Another useful thing to keep in mind is that ‘every’ is more commonly used with time expressions.

• She visits her grandma every Thursday.
• Rebecca is on social media so much, she checks her Facebook every hour!

Now, actually ‘each’ wouldn’t be wrong in either of these sentences. You could use ‘each’ with many of these time expressions but ‘every’ is just more common and it usually sounds a little more natural. The difference is very subtle.

• Each Monday at 2pm I have a meeting.
• Every Monday at 2pm I have a meeting.

That’s fine. Using every is a little better, it sounds a little more natural.

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VI) “Each and every”

• Put your questions in the comments, and we will answer each and every of them!

So, you can also use each and every together like this. The phrase ‘each and every’ is really common in spoken English and it puts all of the emphasis on the whole group but every single person in the group. So it’s like a combination.

And it’s a fixed expression that you’ll see from time to time, and you’ll see both of these words together. That is perfectly acceptable, especially when you are trying to emphasise each and every person in the group is important.

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It is the end of our lesson today! Before we say goodbye to each and every one of you, we want you to tell me in the comments if there are any other English words like ‘each’ and ‘every’ that confuse you a little, that you’d like us to explain more. We will write more articles just like this one to help you understand some of the more subtle differences between English words and help you to sound a little more natural as you’re using English.

In order to get further explanation and practice your listening skills also, watch the video below. Thank you for reading and see you in the next writing!

Credit: Youtube Channel “mmmEnglish!”