| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about the difference between someone, everyone, and anyone; and somebody, anybody, and everybody. Let's get started by looking at the meanings of these words and how we use them. |
| Okay. Let's begin with "someone" and "somebody" to begin with. You can remember, "someone" and "somebody" and "anyone" and "anybody" follow very similar rules as some and any. If you've seen the video on our channel talking about some and any, maybe you'll remember the rules that I'm going to explain here. You can check that video for some extra information about those grammar points, too. |
| Let's start with "someone" and "somebody." We use "someone" and "somebody" in positive statements, a simple statement, not a question, in other words. When we make a positive statement, we use "someone" and "somebody" in that sentence structure. We also use these two words in requests and in offers. Keep in mind these are two categories of questions, a request question or an offer question. Let's take a look at some examples of this now. |
| First of all, "There's someone at the office." Here, I've chosen someone. "There's someone at the office." This is a positive statement. Not a question, just a statement. It's a positive here. The next example, "Can you send someone to help me?" This is a request, a specific type of question, a request question. "Can you send someone to help me?" The third example sentence is an offer. "Would you like to talk to somebody?" Here, we have request, offer, positive statement. We can use "someone" or "somebody" in each of these examples. I've used "someone" and "somebody" here, but actually, we can change each of these to the other choice. Both are fine in each of these example sentences. I'll talk more about the difference between one and body a little bit later. |
| For now, however, let's move on to the difference between "anyone" and "anybody." Okay. This is a key difference between "someone" and "somebody," "anyone" and "anybody." This is used in negative statements. These are used in negative statements. "Someone" and "somebody" used in positive statements. This follows the same rule as some and any. In negative statements, and we use "anyone" and "anybody" in information questions. That means that not requests, not offers, but you're looking for some kind of information. We use "anyone" and "anybody" in these cases. |
| Let's look at a few examples of this. First, "I don't think anyone is at the office. Don't think anyone is at the office." Here, we've used "anyone" because it's a negative. Here's my negative. It's in the "do not." "Not" right here, this is my negative. Therefore, I've used "anyone" here. One more example sentence, a question this time. "Has anybody seen my keys?" Here, I've used "anybody." I've used this because this is an information question. I'm looking for some information I don't have now. This is not a request, it's not an offer, so I shouldn't use "someone" or "somebody." I need to use "anyone" or "anybody." "I'm looking for information." |
| This third example sentence is the same. "Why hasn't anyone returned my calls?" Here, "anyone," and I'm looking for information. In this case, a why. This is a why question. Again, not a request, not an offer, I'm looking to find something new. I'm looking for information, so I should use "anyone." Again, just as I talked about with "someone" and "somebody," I can change this "anyone, anybody, and anyone" to the other word. It's fine to use the other here. For example, "Anybody, anyone, anybody." That's perfectly fine. Again, I'll explain more a little bit later here. But remember, "anyone" and "anybody" is used in negative statements. "Someone/somebody" used in positive statements. This is one key difference. |
| Okay. But let's move along now to "everyone" and "everybody." "Everyone" and "everybody," this will follow kind of a different rule than "someone" and "anyone." We use "everyone" and "everybody" to refer to all people related to a situation or related to a group. This could mean a class. It could mean every person in an office that could mean in a city in a country. It just depends on the group or the situation. We use this word when we want to talk about all people related to that group or related to the situation. |
| Let's look at some examples. Okay. First one, "Everyone in our class graduated." Here, "Everyone in our class graduated" refers to all the people in our class. Everyone in that group of people. In this case, the group is the class, "all people in the class." Another example, "It was great to see everybody at the reunion." "Everybody" here shows us again all people. This could be a class reunion. It could be a family reunion, a company reunion. This just means it was great to see all the related people, so the people related to the situation at this reunion event. |
| One more example then, "Everybody had a great time." Here, "everybody" shows us everybody in the situation. "Maybe everybody who attended the event had a great time. Everybody who attended the party had a great time." This is quite a common expression after an event of some kind. Again, as we saw with the first two groups, we can actually change each of these words to the other word. "Everyone" can be replaced with "everybody." Same thing here, "everybody" and "everybody" can be replaced with "everyone." |
| I want to end this lesson with a quick introduction or a quick overview to the difference between these two endings, "one" and "body." What is the difference here? Really, "one," the words that end in "one," someone, anyone, and everyone, they sound more formal than the words that end in "body." We can actually use these interchangeably. Interchangeably means we can mix and match them. We can choose which one we prefer. That means the meanings are the same, like their purpose is the same. It's just up to us to choose. Why would we do this? Why would we choose one word and not the other word? You can choose according to the syllables. |
| If you remember, syllables are the number of beats. A syllable is a beat of a word. For example, "somebody." "Somebody" has three beats. "Someone" has only two beats, two syllables. This is important when you are writing, especially like writing poetry, writing lyrics for music, or maybe you're trying to write a nice essay, for example. We are listening for which words sound nice to our ears. Sometimes the word "somebody" sounds nice, sometimes the word "someone" sounds better. It's up to us, meaning, we can decide, we can choose which word we prefer to use. You just have to listen and kind of feel which you prefer. There's no difference in meaning; it's just a sound preference and a little bit of a formality difference. |
| I hope that this lesson helped you understand the differences between these words a little bit. As I said, if you want some more information about the difference between some and any -- and we will see you again soon. Bye-bye. |
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