everyone / every one

Everyone[/i] refers to all the members of a group of people.

Everyone arrived at the meeting on time.
Everyone in the room laughed at John's joke
Everyone who meets Yoong Liat says he is handsome.

Every one[/i] refers to each member of a group of things or people considered individually.

We thought we would have enough glassware to run the experiment tomorrow, but it turns out that every one of the flasks is cracked.

We invited six well-known toxicologists to our seminar, but every one turned down our invitation.

(variant)My camera must be broken. I took ten pictures but every single one was blank.

Do you wish to thank all of the people who came to your party as a group, or each one individually?

I thank everyone [all the people] (or "everybody") who came to my birthday party.

I thank every one [each person] who came to my birthday party.

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Inreresting question Yoong.

I would use everyone when applied to a group of people and every one when applied to a group of inanimate objects.

Every one of the objects in the box was red.

Everyone in the group wore red.

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dadpad wrote:

I would use everyone when applied to a group of people and every one when applied to a group of inanimate objects.

Not quite. Every one (two words) can equally well be applied to each one of a group of inanimate objects OR animals OR people, Dadpad. Look it up. Google for "everyone every one" (include the quote marks) for plenty of authorities.

Another variant of every one is "each and every one".

Each and every one of the eggs was cracked.
Each and every one of my cats is beautiful.
Each and every one in my family is crazy.

I would like to thank you all, each and every one of you, [for the support you have given me during my stay here.] [for coming to my birthday party.]

See also anyone/any one

Anyone refers to any person at all. Any one is more selective, referring to a single member of a group.

Anyone can ride in a London bus if they have a ticket.

Any one of the team could have scored the goal.

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Well this all seems to be in order.

Carry on.

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Hello, McTag.

[sarcasm]
I'm so glad that you approve.
[/sarcasm]

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I protest! Not sarcasm, just silliness.

Hello!

Oh. you meant your sarcasm, not mine. Well never mind. I'm glad you're glad.

Smile

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Hi guys

Every one can refer to people to things.

Every one of the apples is sour.

Every one of the students is disciplined.

But I was confused when the sentence is "I thank everyone (or every one) who came to my birthday party." Accordingly to Contrex, either word can be used, depending on the emphasis.

However, I don't understand why Mc Tag talks about silliness.

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As I see it, McTag used humour to indicate he believed your question had been answered.

Quote:

Well this all seems to be in order.

Carry on.

It was in support of contrex's answer, and, it was good natured silly fun, that made me laugh.

Contrex may or may not have being using humour when he responded with his sarcasm remark. Perhaps his sense of humour simply isn't as obvious to me yet.

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Yoong Liat wrote:

Hi guys

Every one can refer to people to things.

Every one of the apples is sour.

Every one of the students is disciplined.

But I was confused when the sentence is "I thank everyone (or every one) who came to my birthday party." Accordingly to Contrex, either word can be used, depending on the emphasis.

Well I would actually disagree here, if that's what contrex said. I think it is incorrect or at least unusual to write
"I thank every one who came to my party"
In such cases, I would always use "everyone"

Quote:

However, I don't understand why Mc Tag talks about silliness.

Explanation: I imagined he was accusing me of sarcasm, when I wasn't. I was only being silly.
Then I thought, on a second reading, he was referring to his own remark as being sarcastic, which is okay by me.

Claro?

Smile

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Or, what McTag said Laughing

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McTag wrote:

Well I would actually disagree here, if that's what contrex said. I think it is incorrect or at least unusual to write
"I thank every one who came to my party"
In such cases, I would always use "everyone"

"Unusual" in whose experience?

Well, according to the grammar books, you'd be wrong. That is not to deny that the "everyone/every one anyone/any one" distinctions are used, or known about, or cared about, by everybody. Many people don't use them these days. It is definitely NOT "incorrect" to use them however.

I hope I am not speaking to someone who says "I don't hear/use that very often - it must be wrong"

Quote:

Explanation: I imagined he was accusing me of sarcasm, when I wasn't.

I thought this was a well known humorous/ironic Web device:

[sarcasm]
I'm so glad that you approve.
[/sarcasm]

You use "opening" and "closing" tags to signify something that might not (you sarcastically suggest) be understood otherwise.

[humour]
I'm joking
[/humour]

Thus I was flagging the line "I'm so glad that you approve." as "sarcasm".

Post by Brits on US-dominated discussion boards often contain [irony] [/irony] tag pairs with stuff in between.

Quote:

Then I thought, on a second reading, he was referring to his own remark as being sarcastic, which is okay by me.

You got it!

Quote:

Claro?

¡Sí, claro!

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Well, you live and learn. I'm not unwilling to learn, although I may be set in some of my ways.

Speaking for myself only, but drawing on long experience, and although not quoting any textbooks, I think it is most unusual to see something like

"I want to thank every one who came to my party"

Written like that, it leads me to think "every one what?"

I think dadpad alluded to this earlier. "Everyone" always means people. "Every one" does not, in my experience, usually refer to people.

Except maybe in the King James Bible:

For every one that asketh, receiveth
And he that seeketh, findeth
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

Is it not more modern to write, eg "Come on everyone, let's go for a swim!"?

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Not completely clear cut, I have found.

A Web source I found, The Mayfield Handbook Of Scientific and technical Writing, http://www.imoat.net/handbook/everyone.htm, says:

Everyone refers to all the members of a group of people. Every one refers to each member of a group of items or people considered individually.

Turning to some books I have here at home,

Line By Line: How To Edit Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook, Houghton Mifflin, 1985 says:

Everyone is a pronoun. Every one is a phrase made up of the adjective every and the pronoun one. The one- and two-word forms are not interchangeable. Use everyone only where you can substitute everybody.

The Writer's Harbrace Handbook, by By Cheryl Glenn, Robert K. Miller, Suzanne Strobeck Webb, Thomas Wadsworth, 2004, says:

"Everyone" means "all": Everyone should attend, "Every one" refers to each person or item in a group. Every one [of you] should attend.

However, "International English Usage", by Loreto Todd and Ian Hancock, Routledge, 1986, differs in that it claims that "every one" only applies to inanimate objects and animals.

So you pays your money and you takes your choice.

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What chance, you may well think, has the poor foreign learner got?

Very Happy

I agree with most of contrex's sources, on reflection.

I would write

"I want to thank everyone here....."

and also

"Every one of you deserves the highest praise."

I understand the difference. (although I may not be able to articulate it well.) How about you, YL?

I am not convinced that the two are interchangeable.

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EVERY ONE (two words ) has a kind of specificity about the individuals within the group refered to. I just wasn't able to put it into words.

Point for discussion.

Quote:

Use everyone only where you can substitute everybody.

This would indicate "everyone" can only be used in reference to people. Am incorrect in this line of thinking?

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dadpad wrote:

EVERY ONE (two words ) has a kind of specificity about the individuals within the group refered to. I just wasn't able to put it into words.

Point for discussion.

Quote:
Use everyone only where you can substitute everybody.

This would indicate "everyone" can only be used in reference to people. Am incorrect in this line of thinking?

No, absolutely not. (You are not incorrect)

In my personal textbookless opinion. Smile

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dadpad wrote:

This would indicate "everyone" can only be used in reference to people.

That is absolutely correct.

"Everyone" means all of the people in a group, considered collectively.

Most sources agree that "every one" means each person, animal, or thing in a group, considered individually, although some sources state that "every one" only applies to animals or things.

However, it is clear that in everyday English many people ignore the distinction and just use "everyone" for both.

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It is? They do? Rolling Eyes

Not in my street.

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McTag wrote:

What chance, you may well think, has the poor foreign learner got?

I agree with most of contrex's sources, on reflection.

I would write

"I want to thank everyone here....."

and also

"Every one of you deserves the highest praise."

I understand the difference. (although I may not be able to articulate it well.) How about you, YL?

I am not convinced that the two are interchangeable.

Everyone means 'every person, all the people.' Every one means every single thing or person.

(Extracted from The Oxford School A-Z of English)

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everyone / every one

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