# Anybody? Bueller? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199 "2003-04-30T17:48:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MongoKing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@MongoKing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MongoKing)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/1 "2003-04-30T17:48:28Z")
If anyone could answer this question, it would be bibliophage, but I’d be willing to listen to anybody. Everyone I’ve asked has said they don’t know, but surely somebody must! Nobody will even venture a guess, hoping that someone else will, but in the end, no one has. Is there a usage difference between anyone/anybody, everyone/everybody, someone/somebody or no one/nobody? Subject versus object? I’ve looked through grammar texts and online. I’ve asked friends, teachers, and fellow obsessive compulsives with no reliable answers. No luck so far, but certainly the teeming millions know. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/2 "2003-04-30T18:04:52Z")
Maybe that’s baloney, and I can’t back this, but possibly óne is more common in Britain, the other one in America? When I learned English at school, we were taught the British way first (colour vs color and so on), and we were taught to say “…body.” My impression is that it’s more Americans who use “…one,” without any remarkable difference in meaning. But it’s not unlikely that I’m wrong here. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/3 "2003-04-30T18:10:21Z")
Maybe that’s baloney, and I can’t back this, but possibly óne is more common in Britain, the other one in America? When I learned English at school, we were taught the British way first (colour vs color and so on), and we were taught to say “…body.” My impression is that it’s more Americans who use “…one,” without any remarkable difference in meaning. But it’s not unlikely that I’m wrong here. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/4 "2003-04-30T18:48:12Z")
No one says nobody, but everyone says everybody. Ask anyone or anybody. Someone has had to of heard of somebody who can confirm this. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/5 "2003-04-30T20:36:38Z")
Fowler’s classic _Modern English Usage, 2nd ed._ doesn’t even bother to cover this. All it has is sort of a footnote in a discussion of whether every one (and those other words) should be one word or two. The conclusion? Use anyone, everyone, no-one, and someone in the sense of anybody, everybody etc. And Eric Partridge’s equally classic _Usage & Abusage_ also talks about somebody and someone and everybody and everyone interchangeably. That would seem to make them about as identical as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/6 "2003-04-30T20:38:56Z")
You can use “everyone”, “no one”, etc., for incorporeal beings. “I shouted at the angels but nobody replied” just sounds stupid. No? Ok, I’m guessing. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/7 "2003-04-30T20:54:37Z")
The “-body” words appear to be older and as such a little “more properly accepted.” My OED (1920s version) doesn’t even have separate entries for the “-one” words as a single word. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/8 "2003-04-30T21:28:28Z")
As **Exapno Mapcase** has already said, each pair is mostly interchangeable–with a slight exception for _no one_/_nobody_: > [@](#): > > **anyone.** > . . . . > **B. And _anybody_.** The two terms are interchangeable, so euphony governs the choice in any given context. In practice, _anyone_ appears in print about three times as often as _anybody_. > [@](#): > > **everyone, everybody.** Because the terms are interchangeable, euphony governs the choice in any given context. In practice, _everyone_ appears in print about twice as often as _everybody_. > [@](#): > > **no one; nobody.** Generally, _no one_ is somewhat more formal and literary than _nobody_. . . . > [@](#): > > **somebody; someone.** The words are equally good; euphony should govern the choice. _Someone_ is often better by that standard. From Bryan A. Garner, _A Dictionary of Modern American Usage_ (1998). _Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage_ (1994) contains an entry for each pair, but the entries for **anybody, anyone** , **everybody, everyone** , and **nobody, no one** all deal with whether the pronoun takes a singular or plural verb, not with whether either word is preferable to the other. But the entry for **somebody, someone** contains this discussion: > [@](#): > > Copperud 1980 has a curious note to the effect that it is a superstition that _someone_ is preferable to _somebody_, and a similar notion is mentioned in Shaw 1987. _Somebody_ and _someone_ are of the same age, according to the OED, and when the OED came out, _somebody_ was much better attested. In the 20th century, however, _someone_ has come on strong, and we seem to have slightly more evidence now for _someone_ than for _somebody_. But both, of course, are equally standard; use whichever one you think sounds better in a given context. ---
**Author:** ![MongoKing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@MongoKing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MongoKing)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-bueller/172199/9 "2003-06-02T17:57:23Z")
You guys are good, very good. Thanks.