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Is “everyone” singular or plural?
Would the noun following "everyone's" be plural? For example:
Everyone's heart sank.
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3I think that question is different. These seem more related to me: “On their back” or “on their backs”, “Only those who qualify will be awarded a certificate” vs. “only those who qualify will be awarded certificates” – RegDwigнt Aug 22 '12 at 12:57
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1I agree with @RegDwigнt. Another, more similar question (which is also mis-marked as a duplicate of "Is 'everyone' singular or plural?") is Should “everyone's” be followed by a singular or plural noun? – herisson Jul 05 '17 at 23:10
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Everyone is a pronoun and means every person or all people. In your example everyone's denotes the possessive form of everyone. Remember that in AmE, it's always singular not plural. So the word following it should always be singular not plural, too. Here are a few examples:
He got everyone's attention.
Everyone needs him. (not need)
Everyone likes him. (not like)
Everyone's mom was there. (not moms)
That said, everyone's is also the abbreviated form of everyone is.
Everyone's home for dinner means Everyone is home...
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I'm curious as to why you qualify the pronoun being singular with "in AmE". Is there a variation of English where this is not the case? – Amos M. Carpenter Aug 22 '12 at 08:52
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@aaamos: I think it's not the case in BrE. Grammar Girl gives a reference to Garner, B. Garner's Modern English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003, pp. 320-1. and says: "if you’re in Britain, you don’t have to worry so much about everyone and everybody because sometimes they’re considered plural." http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/indefinite-pronouns.aspx – Noah Aug 22 '12 at 09:16
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I'm pretty sure the reference you quote is about the usage of "everyone" with a plural pronoun rather than with a plural verb (e.g. "everyone has their own"), but the sentence isn't exactly well-phrased and somewhat misleading (usage of "everyone" with a singular verb and a plural pronoun doesn't imply that "everyone" is considered plural). I'll refrain from commenting on the name of the author or the domain of said reference. ;-) Happy to be proven wrong, but I'd still say that "everyone" is considered to be a singular noun in British and Australian English as well. – Amos M. Carpenter Aug 22 '12 at 10:11
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@aaamos: I am not sure. But do you think it would be better to remove the "in AmE" part from my answer and make it plain English? – Noah Aug 22 '12 at 10:31
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Personally, I'd leave it out and see if anyone corrects it, but as I'm not 100% certain, I'm just as happy if you decide to leave it. :-) – Amos M. Carpenter Aug 22 '12 at 11:39
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Their in everyone has their own isn't a plural pronoun. The sentence is equivalent to everyone has his or her own and illustrates the regular use of they as a singular pronoun in informal speech to avoid the pedantic-sounding he or she. – boargules Aug 22 '12 at 11:42
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@boargules: You are of course correct, but this was in reply to a reference from another site, and had I not used the phrase "plural pronoun" in this instance, it would have served to confuse matters even further. – Amos M. Carpenter Aug 22 '12 at 12:01
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