'Everyone is' or 'Everyone are'

Question

Greetings,I'm wonder which of the following is more correct:'Everyone around here, even the officers, are really excited...' 'Everyone around here, even the officers, is really excited...'I recognize the correctness of "Everyone is really excited" but, by the same token, saying "Everyone here is really excited" sounds wrong to me; so does "Everyone here are really excited" so I'm completely confused.Can anyone shed some light for a poor lost soul such as myself.Commander Venus+

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I'm wonder which of the following is more correct: 'Everyone around here, even the officers, are really excited...' 'Everyone around here, even the officers, is really excited...'[/nq]
The latter only.
Michael Hamm Since mid-September of 2003, AM, Math, Wash. U. St. Louis I've been erasing too much UBE. (Email Removed) Of a reply, then, if you have been cheated, http://math.wustl.edu/~msh210/ Likely your mail's by mistake been deleted.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Greetings, I'm wonder which of the following is more correct: 'Everyone around here, even the officers, are really excited...' 'Everyone ... are really excited" so I'm completely confused. Can anyone shed some light for a poor lost soul such as myself.[/nq]
The basic rule is that "everyone" is a grammatical singular and therefore takes singular verb forms, such as "is", not plurals such as "are." As long as the subject is "everyone," the verb is singular. So both of your examples require "is". So much seems reasonably clear, at least in American English.(1)

The situation is supposed to change if "everyone" is only part of the subject. Simple example: we say "John is hungry" but "John and Mary are hungry." But it's not easy to come up with a compound subject that contains "everyone." The only one that I can conjure up right now is "everyone and his brother," which is facetious and really means no more than "everyone" alone. Which is why, at least to my ear, even "everyone and his brother" usually gets a singular verb.
Googling:
Everyone and his brother is 410
Everyone and his brother are 88
Everyone and his brother has 335
Everyone and his brother have 43
I'd call that statistically significant.
Anyway, the answer to your query in American English is clear: singular verb "is", not "are" in all your examples.

(1) Other Englishes, such as that of the UK, sometimes use plural verbs with grammatically singular nouns, as in "Parliament are voting on the tariff bill." They may do this with "everyone" as well. But that doesn't go in the US.

Bob Lieblich
Whom everyone listen to

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I recognize the correctness of "Everyone is really excited" but, by thesame token, saying "Everyone here is really excited" sounds ... are really excited" so I'm completely confused. Can anyone shed some light for a poor lost soul such as myself.[/nq]
This confirms that intuition alone is not a
firm foundation for language. There are also
rules, which can be stronger: as here the
rule that subject and verb ought to agree,
singular IS with singular ONE.
We then discover that English has some
collective nouns that are not singular or plural
in the common sense that most words are. But
there are still standard forms. Americans
say and British say
Each is correct in its
linguistic context: if we rely on intuition to
measure correctness, we need to be sure
we also know the context.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This confirms that intuition alone is not a firm foundation for language. There are also rules, which can be stronger: [/nq]
Intuition is a firm and sufficient foundation for language. In hundreds of contemporary languages, it is the only foundation, as it was for ALL the thousands of world languages up until the recent few millennia.

If a speech community imposes some standard form with rules that sometimes conflict with intuition, then of course those rules will be "stronger", but only because of the social consequences of violating them, not because of any intrinsic value or logic.

\P. Schultz

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](1) Other Englishes, such as that of the UK, sometimes use plural verbs with grammatically singular nouns, as in "Parliament are voting on the tariff bill." They may do this with "everyone" as well. But that doesn't go in the US.[/nq]
I should've mentioned: I'm in Canada.

Commander Venus+
"Let's dance." (circa 2003)

'Everyone is' or 'Everyone are'

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions