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January 25
How do I determine whether I should use 'anybody' or 'anyone', and does it really matter? MyNameIsUnnamed (talk) 00:41, 25 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
- I googled "distinction between anyone and anybody", and several opinions emerged. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:56, 25 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
- They mostly seem parroting each other, in particular with the complementary claims that either
- "anyone does not refer to any specific person, while anybody refers to a specific person in a group"
- or
- "anybody can suggest a random person from a group, while anyone might imply selecting a single person from a group".
- Obviously, these cannot be both correct. I think that, inasmuch as they suggest a difference in contemporary usage, both are wrong.
- I find this article (by a published linguist) helpful. To the only example of a difference in this article, shown with graphs, I can add another, more striking example: Questions, anybody? versus Questions, anyone?. --Lambiam 12:51, 25 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
- "Anyone for tennis?" or "Tennis, anyone?" were kind of stereotypical 1920s phrases with that word-choice... AnonMoos (talk) 22:03, 25 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]