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The sentence in question is this:

I can't forsee every situation, but I can respond to ____

Where ____ is to be filled by either "it" or "them". The meaning/point of this sentence is that the speaker is not able to predict every situation, but is able to react to any that comes up.

Of course, rephrasing is possible, but what would be the glory in that?

user289661
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  • Similar: The pronoun for “many a language” – herisson Mar 02 '17 at 00:20
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    I think "every" and "many a" are too different for this similarity to be important. – user289661 Mar 02 '17 at 00:23
  • Perhaps. Maybe the "Neither of those sounds correct to me" part of the answer is the same, though. To me it sounds best to use the phrase you used yourself later in this post--"any that comes up". "It" is clearly wrong, and "them" sounds bad to me. – herisson Mar 02 '17 at 00:27
  • There are many instances in which "every xxx" is considered singular. Such as in the case of "every good thing has an end". Also, "every man to himself" suggests the singularity of the subject as well. – user289661 Mar 02 '17 at 00:30
  • "Every xxx" takes singular verb agreement and a singular reflexive pronoun, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can use any singular pronoun with it in all circumstances. For example, "him" is a singular pronoun but you can't replace "every man to himself" with "every man to him". But I'm sure you know this, since otherwise you wouldn't have asked the question. I just linked because I thought the other question seemed relevant; I don't know the answer, so I'll stop commenting now and wait for someone who is more knowledgeable to tell you if either "it" or "them" is grammatical here. – herisson Mar 02 '17 at 00:31
  • It seems so. Can you elaborate and/or find sources for this point? – user289661 Mar 02 '17 at 00:34
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    ... 'them all'. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 02 '17 at 00:40
  • "burn them, burn them all." – NVZ Mar 02 '17 at 01:12

1 Answers1

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"Every" combines singular and plural. It is used before a singular noun to refer to all the individual members of a set, so it refers to single items occurring multiple times. It doesn't match with purely singular words, like "it", or purely plural words, like "them". It needs to be matched with a word or phrase that similarly refers to singular items multiple times. For example:

I can't forsee every situation, but I can respond to each one.

I can't forsee every situation, but I can respond to them all.

fixer1234
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