Somebody, anyone, everything, etc. are indefinite pronouns.
We use-body, -one, -thing, -whereto refer to people, places and things in a general way. We write them as one single word, apart fromno one, which can be written as two separate words or with a hyphen (no-one).
somebody | someone | something | somewhere |
anybody | anyone | anything | anywhere |
nobody | no one | nothing | nowhere |
everybody | everyone | everything | everywhere |
The differences in their meanings are the same as the differences betweensome, any, everyandno. We use them all with a singular verb:
Isanyonehelping Claire with the washing up?
Everybodymakes mistakes.
I’m looking forsomewhereI can store my bike.
-bodyand -one
-bodyand -onemean the same thing. In informal contexts, we use indefinite pronouns ending in -bodymore often than pronouns ending in -one. The forms with -oneare more common in formal writing:
Nobodywas interested in the talk.(orNo one was…)
Everyonestarted to clap.(orEverybody …)
Somewhere nice,nothing much
We can add an adjective or adverbial expression to these indefinite pronouns to make them more specific:
A:What did you do at the weekend?
B:Nothing much.
Are you thinking ofanyonein particular?
Is theresomething elseI can do to help?
See also:
Some
Any
Someandany
Else
Every
Someone,somebody,something,somewhere
Anyoneandanybody
Everyone,everybody,everything,everywhere
No one,nobody,nothing,nowhere