Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hirosoba]

Hi,

Would you please tell me the differences between "everybody" and "anybody" in the below sentence?

Almost ( ) living in China uses bicycles for transportation.

I think the correct answer is everybody. However, anybody is the wrong answer. I really want to know the difference.

Thanks.

[CP]

Most correct: "Almost everybody [or everyone] living in China uses a bicycle [or bicycles] for transportation." That is, almost every single person in China uses a bicycle.

"Everybody" refers to every person, while "anybody" refers to any person.

You could use "anybody" if you wanted to make it negative:
"Nobody [or not anybody] rides a bicycle in the swamplands."

You could also use "anybody" this way: "Almost anybody in China would agree that nearly everybody there rides a bicycle." That is, almost any person in China would agree to that.

Hope that helps.

Yours truly, CP

[hirosoba]

Thank you, PC.

It is very difficult for me to understand the difference. In this sentence, everybody is the correct (better) answer. However, anybody is not necessarily the wrong answer.

Am I right?

hirosoba

[CP]

Sorry if I was not clear in my response. Let me try again.

I don't think that a native speaker would use "anybody" in your sentence. "Almost everybody" or "almost everyone" means "almost every person." Your sentence means that almost every person in China rides a bike.

"Anybody" or "anyone" means "any person" without being specific. If you used "anybody" in your sentence, it would just not sound right. Perhaps I should not have made up sentences using "anybody" as I did, but I'll try one more:

"Almost anybody in China can ride a bike, and almost everybody does ride a bike at least once a week." That means that any person you might see in China is able to ride a bike, and every person there does ride a bike sometimes.

Maybe someone else can explain why it should be that way.