You can eat anything you want on the table. VS. You can eat everything you want on the table.

Question

Sometimes "anything" and "everything" are interchangeable for the same meaning, aren't they? For example,You can eat anything you want on the table. VS. You can eat everything you want on the table.Do you native English speakers feel any difference between them? Thank you so much as usual and have a good day.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

Let's say there are many types of desserts - many individual slices of pie, cookies, cupcakes, etc.

"You can eat anything you like" would imply I could have one, but it was entirely my choice which.
"You can eat everything you like" is an invitation to have multiple items - two pieces of pie, several cookies, a cupcakes, etc.

CalifJim · Answer

Hans51Sometimes "anything" and "everything" are interchangeable for the same meaning, aren't they?

Yes, that's pretty much true. In many languages other than English, people say "everything" where we would say "anything" — as in your example.

Hans51Do you native English speakers feel any difference between them?

Yes, but it's hard to explain. 'anything' is the preferred word in these contexts. It gives the feeling of "no matter what", "it doesn't matter". 'everything' doesn't give that feeling.

You can eat anything you want on the table (no matter what it is). (You can make various choices without restriction.)

You can eat everything you want on the table suggests something more like You can keep eating and eating and eating until you have finally eaten everything you want. (You can eat as much of each choice as you want, and you can even keep eating the same choice until it's gone.)

CJ

Hans51 · Answer

Thank you both, so when a host says, "You can eat anything you want on the table", I could eat more than one food, right?

CalifJim · Answer

Hans51when a host says, "You can eat anything you want on the table", I could eat more than one food, right?

Right. And you can eat more than one food if the host says, "You can eat everything you want on the table" (though it would be unusual for the host to say that).

Changing between 'anything' and 'everything' does not affect that fact.

CJ

You can eat anything you want on the table. VS. You can eat everything you want on the table.

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