# EN: everybody / everyone / anybody / anyone / somebody / someone + agreement: singular or plural?



## djnellio

Must we say:
"everybody do" or "everybody does" ?
"somebody do" or "somebody does" ?
"anybody do" or "anybody does" ?

*Moderator note:* Multiple threads have been merged to create this one. See also the following thread about the personal pronoun choice: EN: anyone / someone + personal pronoun (he, she, his, her / they, their / one's).


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## Aupick

'Does', in all three cases.


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## rita606

we say

every one is affected by some events in his/her life
or
every one are affected by some events in their lives?

MERCI


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## tilt

_Everyone *is *affected by some events in *their *life._
It sounds strange for non English ears, but it's said this way.


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## Thomas1

Grammatically it should be _everyone is_.
Anyway, I believe that the second one is very common in colloquial English.


tilt said:


> _Everyone *is *affected by some events in *their *life._
> It sounds strange for non English ears, but it's said this way.


_his/her _are also possible, but as you say most English speakers would be most likely to use _their_.

Tom


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## tilt

I've got an English grammar book which says _their _is required here.


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## Thomas1

Because it's got so common that everyone uses it now, I guess.

Strictly speaking _everyone_ has a singular meaning -- that's why singular verbs are used with it, and thus pronouns also should be singular, but the reality is different.

If you have a look at another pronoun from the same group you will see that the pronouns are singular, e.g.:
something
_Something went wrong, didn't it?_


Tom


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## Jocaste

Bonjour ^^

je suis en train de me créer plein de petits doutes (ça m'occupe pendant les grèves ) : lorsque l'on conjugue un verbe avec un nom tel que _anyone_, _anything _(quelque chose qui commence par _any_), le verbe qui suit doit être à la troisième personne du singulier, non ?
Et en est-il de même pour les noms en _every_- ?

Une autre question sur ces noms : si je veux utiliser un pronom possessif, lequel se réfère à _anyone _et à _everyone _? _Their _?

Merci beaucoup pour votre aide


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## sorry66

le verbe qui suit doit être à la troisième personne du singulier does not do

Everybody does it.
Anyone who does that is bad.

pour le possessif

Everyone should do their homework.
Can anyone spell their name backwards really quickly?

(I think you could say 'his or her' in the second case as well.)

Can you give some examples yourself?


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## Jocaste

sorry66 said:


> Can you give some examples yourself?



Actually my question wasn't with respect to an instance in particular.
I just couldn't think right 

Thanks for your help soryy66


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## GamblingCamel

_Sorry_ a raison. Dans l'anglais courant, on entend souvent, 
"Can anyone spell _his or he_r name backwards?"

Grammaticalemet, c'est correct, mais ce ne sonne pas bien; de plus en plus on dit,
"Can anyone spell _their_ name backwards?"

Sur un éxamen vous devriez écrire la première phrase.


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## jann

To come back to the original question (let's not get side tracked on the usage of "their," please - that would belong in another thread)... 

Both "everyone" and "anyone" require a 3rd person singular conjugation. 

It's quite like French:  _tout le monde peut..., n'importe qui peut..._


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## so-much-marie

tilt said:


> _Everyone *is *affected by some events in *their *life._


 
On ne met pas au pluriel : "their lives" ?
Après tout, ils ont chacun une vie, non ?


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## Maître Capello

Comme _everyone_ représente n'importe qui et qu'il s'emploie donc au singulier, équivalent en cela à _on_ ou _tout le monde_ en français, il est logique d'employer également le singulier pour _life_.

Mais si l'on parlait de plusieurs personnes en particulier, on utiliserait le pluriel : _They had some ups and downs in their live*s*._

Voir également les discussions suivantes :
EN: according to their race(s)
EN: their sense(s) of humor


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## Paquita

Bonjour,

J'ai bien noté qu'avec everybody le verbe est au singulier et le possessif au pluriel.

Mais comment expliquer cette phrase trouvée dans un cours d'anglais ?
Everybody do*es* what *they* 're good at.

Est-elle correcte ? Habituelle ? Faut-il l'ériger en phrase-modèle ?

Merci


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## sorry66

'they'  here just means 'he or she'


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## atcheque

Bonjour Paquita,

EN: anyone / someone + personal pronoun (he, she, his, her / they, their / one's) - grammaire
_They _est un neutre (politiquement correct).


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## corentin154

Hello!
I just spotted this in the song "Shatter Me" from Lindsey Stirling.
She says "*somebody make* me feel alive" or "*somebody shine* a light"

It seams that she's using the word "somebody" as if it was "they" isn't she ?
[…]

So far I've just seen things like "*somebody has*" or so, like in here : EN: anyone / someone + personal pronoun (he, she, his, her / they, their / one's)
Is she mistaken ?


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## Keith Bradford

The meaning of  "*Somebody make* me feel alive" is:

"I am calling to an unknown person - somebody - and asking them to make me feel alive."

It's the same construction as "Waiter, pour me a beer!" and would have been better with a comma after _somebody_.


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## Maître Capello

As it is in the third person, is it a subjunctive or imperative?


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## jann

Based on the context ("somebody shine a light" is the 1st line of the chorus), it's clearly an imperative.


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## Maître Capello

OK, so even though the "subject" is in the 3rd person (_somebody_), the 2nd person imperative is used.


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## corentin154

OK, my bad. I haven't though about imperative...
Thanks !


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