Is somebody one word or two

Table of contents:

1. Is someone one word or two?
2. Is it better to say someone or somebody?
3. Is it somebody or some body?
4. What is the word somebody?
5. Is somebody’s correct?
6. What’s the difference between everybody and everyone?
7. How do you use the word someone?
8. Does anybody or anyone know?

Is someone one word or two?

There are many common English words that started out as two-word phrases, e.g. somebody, everyone, today, or tomorrow. Over time they became fused into the one-word forms we use now.

Is it better to say someone or somebody?

There is no difference in meaning between someone and somebody, but somebody is more common in spoken English, and someone is more common in written English. Be Careful! You don’t usually use `someone’ or `somebody’ as part of the object of a negative sentence.

Is it somebody or some body?

Somebody is an indefinite pronoun referring to a certain unspecified person. Some body is a noun phrase referring to a certain unspecified body.

What is the word somebody?

: one or some person of unspecified or indefinite identity somebody will come in. somebody. noun. Definition of somebody (Entry 2 of 2) : a person of position or importance.

Is somebody’s correct?

Somebody’s: genitive singular — of or belonging so somebody. Somebodies: the little used colloquial plural of somebody. Don’t use this, unless you know what you are doing. It is usually wrong.

What’s the difference between everybody and everyone?

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.

How do you use the word someone?

Use “somebody” in a sentence | “somebody” sentence examples

1. Pay somebody back in his own coin.
2. Believe somebody on his bare word.
3. We can’t all be heroes. …
4. Serve somebody with the same sauce.
5. It’s hard to say somebody is good, but still nobody can replace.

More items…

Does anybody or anyone know?

Do you know why ‘Does anybody’ is correct? ‘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.

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

For brief reference, you can see that the two-word spelling of someone hasn’t been predominant since the beginning of the 20th century. Similarly, somebody has been the predominant spelling since at least the year 1800.

Is Neverminding a word?

Present participle of nevermind.

Is Nevermind 1 or 2 words?

Never mind tells someone to disregard a matter. It can also mean “not to mention” or “certainly not.” Never mind should be two words in almost all contexts. Nevermind (one word) is part of the colloquial expression “[pay something] no nevermind.”

How do you say nevermind nicely?

other words for never mind

1. don’t bother.
2. don’t concern yourself.
3. drop it.
4. ignore it.
5. it doesn’t matter.
6. let it go.
7. nothing.
8. stop.

Is nevermind a negative word?

I would like to make the case that the word ‘nevermind’ is quite possibly one of the rudest words in the English language In fact, if you check the dictionary, the definition of the word actually states that nevermind is a word that is usually used in negative contexts.

What does it mean when a girl says Nevermind?

It means that they are disappointed in your previous response(s). This is termed (in my lexicon) an impolite dismissal. The end result is they’re cutting off your input because they don’t value it. Often people hearing never mind!

What’s another word for you’re welcome?

What is another word for you’re welcome?

certainly	sure
it’s nothing	it’s no trouble
it’s the least I could do	it was nothing
not at all	no worries
you are welcome	you’re more than welcome

How do I get Siri to say you’re welcome?

How can you get Siri to say “you’re welcome”? Thanks for the A2A. First you need to ask Siri something….Another Way Is:

1. Get Your Other Phone.
2. Type On Your Other Phone Any Swearing Insults (e.g Hey you are a Dumb**** and ****ing kill yourself you *****)
3. Send It To Your Main Phone.
4. Then Tell Siri To Read My Recent Message.

How do you say I’m always there for you?

Here are some ways to say, “I’m here for you,” to a good friend who is going through a rough time.

1. I’m here to listen.
2. I’m here to help.
3. It’s okay to cry in front of me.
4. Tell me how you feel.
5. Even if you don’t want to talk now, call me any time, day or night.
6. You helped me when __________ .

How do you say Glad formally?

To be glad is more informal. To be pleased is more formal. It is used both formally and informally.

What is another word for I’m glad?

What is another word for glad?

happy	pleased
gleeful	overjoyed
satisfied	joyful
elated	thrilled
blissful	cheerful

What is the synonyms for Delighted?

delighted

• charmed.
• ecstatic.
• elated.
• enchanted.
• excited.
• jubilant.
• overjoyed.
• pleased.

What is a better word for Delighted?

Synonyms for delighted. agreed (with), contented, feasted, gassed.

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There are some rules for joining two different words into one, but they do not cover all cases

AREAS OF UNCERTAINTY ABOUT JOINING WORDS TOGETHER

Is it correct to write bath tub, or should it be the single word bathtub? Is every day a correct spelling, or everyday? Uncertainties like this are widespread in English, even among proficient users. They are made worse by the fact that in some cases both spellings are correct, but mean different things.

Are there any guidelines for resolving such uncertainties? It seems that in some cases there are and in some there are not. I wish here to indicate some of these guidelines. They mostly involve combinations that can make either one word or two, depending on meaning or grammar.

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ORDINARY COMPOUNDS

Ordinary compounds are the area with the fewest guidelines. They include words like coursework, which I like to write as a single word but my Microsoft Word spellchecker tells me should be two. As a linguist, I usually disregard computer advice about language (see 68. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong), but the question of why ordinary compound words give especial problems is interesting. First, these words need to be defined.

One can think of a compound as two or more words joined together. Linguists, though, like to speak of joined roots or stems rather than words, partly because the joining into a compound stops them being words (a few are not even words by themselves, e.g. horti- in horticulture).

Another problem with “joined words” is that some, such as fearless, are not considered compounds at all. The -less ending is called not a “root” but an “affix”, a meaningful word part added to a root to modify its meaning. Most affixes (some named suffixes, e.g. -less, -ness, -tion, -ly, -ing; some prefixes, e.g. -un-, in-, mis-, pre-) cannot be separate words, but a few like -less can (see 106. Word-Like Suffixes and 146. Some Important Prefix Types). Thus, words like fearless, unhappy and international are not compounds because they have fewer than two roots. Other compounds are swimsuit, homework and eavesdrop.

Suggestions for recognising a compound are not always very helpful. The frequency of words occurring together is no guide because it ignores the fact that many frequent combinations are not compounds (e.g. town hall and open air). The grammatical classes of the words and the closeness of the link between them are sometimes mentioned, but are unreliable. The age of a combination is also suggested, the claim being that compounds originate as two separate words, and gradually evolve through constant use first into hyphenated expressions (like fire-eater or speed-read – see 223. Uses of Hyphens), and eventually into compounds. However, some quite recent words are already compounds, such as bitmap in computing.

Much more useful is the way compounds are pronounced. Single English words generally contain one syllable that is pronounced more strongly than the others (see 125. Stress and Emphasis). This means compounds should have just one strong syllable, while non-compounds should have more. The rule applies fairly universally (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #3). For example, home is the only strong syllable in homework, but one of two in home rule. I write coursework as one word because course- is stronger than work.

The only problem with this approach is that you have to know pronunciations before you start, which is not always the case if English is not your mother tongue. The only other resort is a dictionary or spellcheck!

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NOUNS DERIVED FROM PHRASAL VERBS

Happily, some compound words have some other helpful features. Most are words whose roots, if written as two words, are also correct but have different meaning and grammar, so that the meaning indicates the spelling or vice versa. A particularly large category of such words is illustrated by the compound noun giveaway (= “obvious clue”). If its two roots are written separately as give away, they become a “phrasal” verb – a combination of a simple English verb (give) with a small adverb (away) – meaning “unintentionally reveal” (see 244. Special Uses of GIVE, #12).

There are many other nouns that can become phrasal verbs, e.g. takeover, takeaway, makeup, cutoff, breakout, setdown, pickup, washout, login and stopover. In writing there is always a need to remember that, if the two “words” are going to act as a verb, they must be spelled separately, but if they are going to act as a noun, they must be written together.

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OTHER CHOICES THAT DEPEND ON WORD CLASS

In the examples above, it is the choice between noun and verb uses that determines the spelling. Other grammatical choices can have this effect too. The two alternative spellings mentioned earlier, every day and everyday, are an example. The first (with ev- and day said equally strongly) acts in sentences like a noun or adverb, the second (with ev- the strongest) like an adjective. Compare: 

(a) NOUN: Every day is different.

(b) ADVERB: Dentists recommend cleaning your teeth every day.

(c) ADJECTIVE: Everyday necessities are expensive. 

In (a), every day is noun-like because it is the subject of the verb is (for details of subjects, see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices). In (b), the same words act like an adverb, because they give more information about a verb (cleaning) and could easily be replaced by a more familiar adverb like regularly or thoroughly (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs). In (c), the single word everyday appears before a noun (necessities), giving information about it just as any adjective might (see 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun). It is easily replaced by a more recognizable adjective like regular or daily. For more about every, see 169. “All”, “Each” and “Every”.

Another example of a noun/adverb contrast is any more (as in …cannot pay any more) versus anymore (…cannot pay anymore). In the first, any more is the object of pay and means “more than this amount”, while in the second anymore is not the object of pay (we have to understand something like money instead), and has the adverb meaning “for a longer time”.

A further adverb/adjective contrast is on board versus onboard. I once saw an aeroplane advertisement wrongly saying *available onboard – using an adjective to do an adverb job. The adverb on board is needed because it “describes” an adjective (available). The adjective form cannot be used because there is no noun to describe (see 6. Adjectives with no Noun 1). A correct adjective use would be onboard availability.

Slightly different is alright versus all right. The single word is either an adjective meaning “acceptable” or “undamaged”, as in The system is alright, or an adverb meaning “acceptably”, as in The system works alright. The two words all right, on the other hand, are only an adjective, different in meaning from the adjective alright: they mean “100% correct”. Thus, Your answers are all right means that there are no wrong answers, whereas Your answers are alright means that the answers are acceptable, without indicating how many are right.

Consider also upstairs and up stairs. The single word could be either an adjective (the upstairs room) or an adverb (go upstairs) or a noun (the upstairs). It refers essentially to “the floor above”, without necessarily implying the presence of stairs at all – one could, for example, go upstairs in a lift (see 154. Lone Prepositions after BE). The separated words, by contrast, act only like an adverb and do mean literally “by using stairs” (see 218. Tricky Word Contrasts 8, #3).

The pair may be and maybe illustrates a verb and adverb use:

(d) VERB: Food prices may be higher.

(e) ADVERB: Food prices are maybe higher.

In (e), the verb is are. The adverb maybe, which modifies its meaning, could be replaced by perhaps or possibly. Indeed, in formal writing it should be so replaced because maybe is conversational (see 108. Formal and Informal Words).

My final example is some times and sometimes, noun and adverb:

(f) NOUN: Some times are harder than others.

(g) ADVERB: Sometimes life is harder than at other times. 

Again, replacement is a useful separation strategy. The noun times, the subject of are in (f), can be replaced by a more familiar noun like days without radically altering the sentence, while the adverb sometimes in (g) corresponds to occasionally, the subject of is being the noun life.

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USES INVOLVING “some”, “any”, “every” AND “no”

The words some, any, every and no generally do not make compounds, but can go before practically any noun to make a “noun phrase”. In a few cases, however, this trend is broken and these words must combine with the word after them to form a compound. Occasionally there is even a choice between using one word or two, depending on meaning.

The compulsory some compounds are somehow, somewhere and somewhat; the any compounds are anyhow and anywhere, while every and no make everywhere and nowhere. There is a simple observation that may help these compounds to be remembered: the part after some/any/every/no is not a noun, as is usually required, but a question word instead. The rule is thus that if a combination starting with some, any, every or no lacks a noun, a single word must be written.

The combinations that can be one word or two depending on meaning are someone, somebody, something, sometime, sometimes, anyone, anybody, anything, anyway (Americans might add anytime and anyplace), everyone, everybody, everything, everyday, no-one, nobody and nothing. The endings in these words (-one, -body, -thing, -way, -time, -place and –day) are noun-like and mean the same as question words (who? what/which? how? when? and where? – see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words).

Some (tentative) meaning differences associated with these alternative spellings are as follows: 

SOME TIME = “an amount of time”

Please give me some time.

SOMETIME (adj.) = “past; old; erstwhile”

I met a sometime colleague

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SOMETHING = “an object whose exact nature is unimportant”.

SOME THING = “a nasty creature whose exact nature is unknown” (see 260. Formal Written Uses of “Thing”, #2).

Some thing was lurking in the water.

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ANYONE/ANYBODY = “one or more people; it is unimportant who”

Anyone can come = Whoever wants to come is welcome; Choose anyone = Choose whoever you want – one or more people.

ANY ONE = “any single person/thing out of a group of possibilities”.

Any one can come = Only one person/thing (freely chosen) can come; Choose any one = Choose whoever/whichever you want, but only one.

ANY BODY = “any single body belonging to a living or dead creature”.

Any body is suitable = I will accept whatever body is available.

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ANYTHING = “whatever (non-human) is conceivable/possible, without limit”.

Bring anything you like = There is no limit in what you can bring; Anything can happen = There is no limit on possible happenings.

ANY THING = “any single non-human entity in a set”.

Choose any thing = Freely choose one of the things in front of you.

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EVERYONE/EVERYBODY = “all people” (see 169. “All”, “Each” and “Every” and 211.General Words for People).

Everyone/Everybody is welcome.

EVERY ONE = “all members of a previously-mentioned group of at least three things (not people)”.

Diamonds are popular. Every one sells easily.

EVERY BODY = “all individual bodies without exceptions”.

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EVERYTHING = “all things/aspects/ideas”.

Everything is clear.

EVERY THING = “all individual objects, emphasising lack of exceptions”.

Every thing on display was a gift.

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NO-ONE/NOBODY = “no people”

No-one/Nobody came.

NO ONE = “not a single” (+ noun)

No one answer is right.

NO BODY = “no individual body”.

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NOTHING = “zero”.

Nothing is impossible.

NO THING = “no individual object”. 

There are other problem combinations besides those discussed here; hopefully these examples will make them easier to deal with.