anybody, anyone

To me they're both the same

I'll tell you, if you will tell me what 'na ja' is supposed to represent.

'Anyone' is slightly more formal, and should be used in writing essays, reports, business letters, etc.

The only "na ja" i know is German, meaning "well then", "well yes"
But of course I'm not maew, so I hope I'm not intruding?

'Anyone' and 'anybody' are synonymous in most cases.
However 'anybody' can mean also 'an important person' that anyone can't mean.
o "If you are anybody, you'll be invited".
x "If you are anyone, you'll be invited".

paco

Sorry, they both could represent an important person to be me, Paco; that is just the opinion of Mr. Micawber (and he's not just anyone, you know).

'Anyone who is anyone is going to the Grand Duke's ball.'

'Somebody' is a better candidate for an important personage; while 'nobody' can be a nonentity. Still, the '-one' forms do not grate terribly for me in that context.

Hello Mr Micawber

I'm sorry to say any of my dictionaries doesn't mention that 'anyone' can mean 'an important person'.
But I know well you are somebody as an English teacher, so I feel the dictionaries might be wrong.

paco

Maew is Thai.

I finally found a Thai translator on line that used English phonetics, not an easy task, if you don't want to pay for the service.

Na is will or shall. Ja is a particle used at the end. I don't know what that means, but you might.

Paco,

I don't think we need to say that the dictionary is wrong just because it didn't contain every possible meaning of every possible word. Are omissions "wrong"?

In any case, let me add to Mr. M's post by saying that I, too, am very familiar with the expression "Anyone who is anyone (is / will / ...) ..."

I had a look through my Quirk, et. al., Paco, and I can find no reference to special uses of either form other than that 'pronouns in -one are regarded as more elegant than those in -body'.

You are right of course, that this set of pronouns is sometimes used to mean 'VIP', but I can, as I said, see no consistent use of one form or the other. Of course, it is possib

Hello MrM

The dictionaries I referred are Webster's College Dictionary [Random House 1991], Oxford English Dictionary [CD-ROM version 3.01 2002] and Genius E-J Dictionary.

The Webster College Dictionary, for example, explains as follows:
[anybody]
1 (pronoun) any person
2 (noun) a person of some importance: If you're anybody you'll get an invitat