Pronouns

Choosing between anything and everything

A pronoun may be used wherever a noun is called for: wherever we need to identify a person, place, or thing.

Rule: Use anything to stand for any one of a range of possibilities; use everything to stand for every possibility.

Example: On 28 January 2009, The Globe and Mail reported that Justice Harvey Brownstone of the Ontario Court of Justice, whose book on the travails of prosecuting a divorce had recently been published, “was afraid of anything from a serious scolding from his superiors to a misconduct complaint.”

What’s wrong: Justice Brownstone wasn’t afraid of just one possible sanction; he was afraid of every possible sanction.

Correct usage: Justice Brownstone “was afraid of everything from a serious scolding from his superiors to a misconduct complaint.”

Nuance: The positive “she’s afraid of nothing” has the same meaning as the negative “she’s not afraid of anything,” because the opposite of nothing (no thing) is any one of a range of possibly fearsome things. The positive “he’s afraid of somethings” has the same meaning as the negative “he’s not afraid of everything,” because the opposite of somethings (some, but not all, fearsome things) is not everything (not every single fearsome thing).

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