46.    all, each, every, everyone, everybody, everything

A.    all compared to every

Technically, all means a number of people or things considered as a group while every means a number of people or things considered individually. But in practice every and its compounds are often used when we are thinking of a group.

B.     each (adjective and pronoun) and every (adjective)

each means a number of persons or things considered individually.

every can have this meaning but with every there is less emphasis on the individual.

Every man had a weapon means 'All the men had weapons', and implies that the speaker counted the men and the weapons and found that he

had the same number of each. Each man had a weapon implies that the

speaker went to each man in turn and checked that he had a weapon.

each is a pronoun and adjective: Each (man) knows what to do.

every is an adjective only: Every man knows . . .

each can be used of two or more persons or things, and is normally

used of small numbers, every is not normally used of very small

numbers.

Both take a singular verb. The possessive adjective is his/her/its.

C.     everyone/everybody and everything (pronouns)

everyone/everybody + singular verb is normally preferred to all (the) people + plural verb, i.e. we say Everyone is ready instead of All the people are ready.

There is no difference between everyone and everybody.

everything is similarly preferred to all (the) things, i.e. we say Everything has been wasted instead of All the things have been wasted.

The expressions all (the) people, all (the) things are possible when followed by a phrase or clause:

All the people in the room clapped.

I got all the things you asked for. Otherwise they are rarely used.