# Which is correct, "No One" or Noone"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085 "2004-06-18T18:16:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/21 "2004-06-19T18:53:22Z")
**Noone Special** , when I first saw your name, I thought of lunch. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/22 "2004-06-19T19:15:47Z")
> [@hillbilly queen](#): > > **Noone Special** , when I first saw your name, I thought of lunch. 🙂 Hey, I’m game for a nooner! Anytime you want. 🙂 (you **are** female, right?) Just let me know - oh about 3 days ahead of time, what with travel arrangements, and all the time zones that will have to be crossed on the way… (Goes away to check whether passport is valid) Dani ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/23 "2004-06-19T19:46:12Z")
> [@Beauty Personified](#): > > There’s probably a situation where “some one” may be appropriate, but I can’t think of any at the moment. All statements about word usage should be verified, but some one simply has to take on trust. (I’m here all week, you know.) As to the OP: “no one”. “No-one”? My heart bleeds for the innocent hyphen cruelly thus imprisoned … ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/24 "2004-06-19T20:43:52Z")
I love discussing turning points in war. Was the Battle of Somme one? Yeah, I got nuthin’… Hi, **Opti**! ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/25 "2004-06-19T20:51:29Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > I love discussing turning points in war. Was the Battle of Somme one? I thought this was a discussion of the school kid who got two numeric series as homework. He had to multiply one, and sum one. Hey, I’m **good** at bad puns! 😛 Dani ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/26 "2004-06-19T21:03:38Z")
Well, there were lots of Allied troops at lots of First World War battles, and I believe some won the Somme one. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/27 "2004-06-19T22:01:56Z")
“Hey, who was that Mexican?” “Oh, just some Juan.” ---
**Author:** ![Beauty\_Personified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Beauty\_Personified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauty_Personified)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/28 "2004-06-19T22:21:33Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > All statements about word usage should be verified, but some one simply has to take on trust. Nice try, but that’s a really awkward sentence. Without changing any of the words, I’d add a comma after “some” to create a pause, making the sentence much easier to read, yet somewhat nullifying the idea of “some one” as a word pair. _“All statements about word usage should be verified, but some, one simply has to take on trust.”_ The “take on” part of the sentence I find somewhat awkward as well. Anyhoo… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/29 "2004-06-19T22:31:47Z")
If you just say “nobody,” you needn’t remember how to spell it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/30 "2004-06-19T22:56:10Z")
English (like most languages) is a constantly evolving method of communicating between people. And what is correct is whatever can be clearly understood by the people doing the communicating. The standard progression of a combined term like this in English is: 1. 2 separate words (separated with a space). 2. 2 words, joined with a hyphen. 3. a compound word, with no separation. Thus in George Washington’s time you see “to morrow”, in Abraham Lincoln’s time “to-morrow”, and in the 19th Century and after “tomorrow”. The time that it takes for this progression seems to depend on how frequently the term is used, how clearly it describes something, and a bit on how ‘likeable’ the new term is to people. And terms seem to progress faster nowadays, with more written communication going on. I remember as recently as the 1960’s seeing the term “soft-ware”, with a hyphen. Now, that is almost completely a single compound word. And sometimes terms don’t complete this progression, but stay as separate words or hyphenated words in standard usage. It would seem that “no one” is moving along this progression: “no one” in common usage, sometimes hyphenated “no-one” (more common in British usage), and a few people using it as a compount word already: “noone”. It’s still to be seen if this will move all the way to a compound term in standard usage. I suspect that it will not, because there are 2 different vowel sounds at the join, and combining them gives a double vowel at the join. This is commonly pronounced differently, as a single vowel, so it is confusing when written. (As many people said, the tendancy is to think of it as “noon”.) This is probably enough confusion to prevent this one from ever becoming a compound word for most people. ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/31 "2004-06-19T23:25:33Z")
Noone is incorrect, unless you’re [E.E. Cummings](http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1185). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/32 "2004-06-20T05:02:48Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > The standard progression of a combined term like this in English is: > > 1. 2 separate words (separated with a space). > 2. 2 words, joined with a hyphen. > 3. a compound word, with no separation. > > Thus in George Washington’s time you see “to morrow”, in Abraham Lincoln’s time “to-morrow”, and in the 19th Century and after “tomorrow”. Ah! So I’m just ahead of my time! I am the _Avant Guard_!! (Scratches head - is there a space in _avant guard_?) > [@](#): > > It would seem that “no one” is moving along this progression: “no one” in common usage, sometimes hyphenated “no-one” (more common in British usage), and a few people using it as a compount word already: “noone”. > > It’s still to be seen if this will move all the way to a compound term in standard usage. I suspect that it will not, because there are 2 different vowel sounds at the join, and combining them gives a double vowel at the join. This is commonly pronounced differently, as a single vowel, so it is confusing when written. (As many people said, the tendancy is to think of it as “noon”.) This is probably enough confusion to prevent this one from ever becoming a compound word for most people. But the pseudo-double-o construct already exists, for example in “cooperation”. Dani ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/33 "2004-06-20T05:42:46Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > Ah! So I’m just ahead of my time! I am the _Avant Guard_!! (Scratches head - is there a space in _avant guard_?) There is a space in[_avant garde_](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=avant%20garde). ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/34 "2004-06-20T05:48:13Z")
> [@XWalrus2](#): > > Noone is incorrect, unless you’re [E.E. Cummings](http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1185). “e.e. cummings”, shurely? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/35 "2004-06-20T05:50:12Z")
> [@Noone Special](#): > > But the pseudo-double-o construct already exists, for example in “cooperation”. Cooperation = a business run by chickens ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/36 "2004-06-20T05:52:09Z")
> [@Ross](#): > > “e.e. cummings”, shurely? [Surely not.](http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/caps.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/37 "2004-06-20T18:01:16Z")
Don’t tell me I’m the only one who still uses diaereses: noöne. When using a medium that doesn’t allow them, I usually spell it “no-one” (or “noo:ne”, but that generally just seems to confuse people). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085/38 "2004-06-20T18:08:09Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Cooperation = a business run by chickens Coalition = the majority of the miners. (next up - major/minor, anyone? :p) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-correct-no-one-or-noone/251085.md?page=1)