GIVE ANSWERS - English

100% GOOD (3 votes)beantwoordTaalvraag
Is there any difference between no one and nobody (someone-somebody ecc.)?

GIVE ANSWERS

piquk77 profile picture piquk77January 2019
As far as I know, mainly a difference in formality. "Nobody" is less formal than "no one" is, so you'll find it used less often in formal contexts.
AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgAugust 2020

Yes, "nobody" is usually less formal and, I'm sure, more often used in spoken language than "no one". However, there is a specific instance where you use "no one" instead of "nobody" - even when speaking informally. That is, if you are referring back to that absence of a person/people indicated by "no one".


Look at this sentence (fictional, I know smile.gif : "No one came to the party. They were all studying last night for the exam."

"They" refers to the absent people indicated by "no one" - all the people at home studying instead of partying.

This sentence "Nobody came to the party. They were all studying last night for the exam." is not how we say it because "they" is a reference and "nobody" stands by itself and isn't ever referenced.

My guess as to why "nobody" is used more often in spoken language - we generally use far fewer references when speaking compared with written texts.

It's possible to talk about "anyone" vs "anybody" in a similar way (which I'm not going to do now, I'm too lazy and it's about 2:30am wink.gif