Their life or their lives?

Anonymous Hi!Given:"Everybody needs a little pizza in their lives."and "Everybody needs a little pizza in their life."What would you say is the correct sentence?Thank you!

in their life

CJ

Hi, CalifJim.

May I ask why? Is it because of the subject?

Everybody needs a little pizza in their life.

Everybody needs little pizzas in ther lives.

They need a little pizza in their lives.

NugsoIs it because of the subject?

For me it is, yes, but the words you have made red are not the subject and they have nothing to do with the choice of 'life' or 'lives'.

I prefer "Everybody ... their life", but "They ... their lives".
everybody ~ every person
they ~ those people
But you can reverse those and they'll still be grammatical

Thanks for the reply, CalifJim. By 'subject' I meant 'They' and 'Everybody'. I just wanted to know if the words in red are dependant on the subjects.

NugsoI just wanted to know if the words in red are dependent on the subjects.

No, they are not. The words in red (the objects) are completely independent of the subjects. In other words, you can 'mix and match' subjects and objects as you please, just as you can do in other sentences.

CJ

Nice to finally learn I can mix and match. It always confused me. Thanks very much!

NugsoNice to finally learn I can mix and match

I thought you already knew that. Subjects and objects don't normally depend on each other.

The [man / woman / boss / child / ...] threw the [plate / ball / shoe / chair / ...] at the wall.

Any of those subjects can go with any of those objects. Surely you already knew this, didn't you?

I knew them, but what I didn't know was that whether it was OK to use 'they' with '...lives' or with 'life'.

Nugsowhether it was OK to use 'they' with '...lives' or with 'life'.

Oh. OK. Yes, both 'life' and 'lives' are OK there.

Sometimes we prefer the singular for those, for example, with body parts you can only have one of.

They all rubbed their nose sounds better to some people than They all rubbed their noses. Nevertheless you c

I see! Thanks again for the very useful reply.