§ 26. The pronoun every is used only as an adjective pronoun.

It modifies singular countable nouns when there are more than

two objects of the same description.

e.g. After the gale every flower in the garden was broken.

Every head turned to look at them as they progressed slowly

up the aisle.

He knew by heart every word in her letter.

Every morning the landlady greeted him with the same question,

"Had a good sleep, dear?"

Every time I ring you up, I find you engaged.

He had every reason to believe that he was right.

Note the idiomatic uses of every in the following sentences:

e.g. Every other house in the street was damaged in an air-raid.

(= every second, fourth, sixth, etc. house; about half the

houses)

He comes here every three days. (= every third day) They

had a rest every few miles. (= They had a rest every

time they had walked a few miles.)

Every is a synonym of all when the latter is used attributively.

The use of every is, however, more restricted than that of all

because it cannot be used with uncountable nouns.

With countable nouns, their use appears to be parallel.

e.g. The explosion broke all the windows in the street.

The explosion broke every window in the street.

Yet, in addition to the fact that every precedes singular nouns

and all is associated with plural nouns, there is a difference in

meaning. The distinction between all and every is that in a sentence

like All the boys were present we consider the boys in a

mass; in the sentence Every boy was present we are thinking of

the many individual boys that make up the mass. Nevertheless it

is more usual to use every instead of all where possible.

§ 27. There are the following compound pronouns formed with

every: everyone — everybody — everything.

All of them are used as noun pronouns and take a singular

verb. Everyone and everybody can be used only of persons.

e.g. Everyone's got a right to their own opinion.

She took the initiative and herself spoke to everyone she knew.

"Everybody's afraid, aren't they?" he said looking at the people

around.

Both everyone and everybody can have the form of the genitive

case.

e.g. He's sure of everyone's consent.

The difference in meaning between everyone and everybody is

the same as between someone and somebody (see § 22 above). Only ;

everyone can be followed by an o/-phrase.

e.g. He is at once physician, surgeon and healer of the serious

illnesses which threaten everyone of us in England today.

Note. The compounds with -one are distinct from such groups as every one, any

one and some one where one is numerical and refers back to a countable noun that occurs

in the sentence or the context. These groups are often followed by of-phrases.

e.g. I have three sisters. Every one of them is beautiful.

The book opened to them new worlds, and every one of them was glorious.

But he knew that it would not take much for every one of them to start

talking freely.

Give me one of those books — any one will do.

Everything can be used only of things and also takes a singular

verb but it cannot have the genitive case form.

e.g. No wonder everything goes wrong in this house.

I'll tell you everything tonight.

One can't have everything.