Nobody likes it.
Not everyone likes it.

    Please look at these two conversation extracts between me and my Japanese friend,
    Ken:

        Extract One
             Ken: Does your father sometimes wear a bowler hat?
             Bob: No, he doesn't.
             Ken:  Really? I heard that a lot of  Englishmen wear bowler hats.
             Bob:  Not so many. And I can tell you that nobody in my family wears a bowler hat.

        Extract Two
               Bob:  What do you usually have for breakfast, Ken?
               Ken:   I usually have toast and jam or toast with peanut butter.
               Bob:   Really? I thought you probably had rice for breakfast.
               Ken:    No, not every Japanese has rice for breakfast.

    Comment on the extracts

    First, let me apologise Ken, for making it seem like you have such a stereotyped
    (固定観念）view of British people, but those two phrases: Nobody wears... and Not everyone has... seem to be a problem for many students.

    I've often heard students say things like this:
    •     Everybody in my family doesn't like karaoke.
    •     Everybody isn't coming to the meeting tomorrow.
          There are two problems with these sentences, which I will describe in the next two
         sections.

Problem one - grammatically incorrect

         The first problem is that they are grammatically incorrect. Everybody  isn't normally
         be followed by a negative verb form (doesn't, didn't, can't, isn't). We do not say:
         Everybody in my family doesn't like garlic or  All my family doesn't like garlic.
         Instead we say:
               
          　　　・　Nobody in my family likes garlic.
          　　　・　None of my relatives like garlic.
　
　　　　Do you see the technique? Nobody or None + positive verb form. If you want to
         use everybody or all, you can do it this way: instead of saying like, use a verb with
         an opposite meaning (e.g. hate or dislike):

               ・　Everybody in my family hates garlic.
               ・　All my family dislike garlic.

    Problem two - the meaning is unclear

    The second problem is more serious. It concerns the fact that the meaning is unclear.
    If a student says to me, Everybody in my family doesn't like garlic, it is not clear whether they mean:

        (a)  Nobody in my family likes garlic
    or (b)  Not everyone in my family likes garlic.

    The meanings of these two sentences are very different.
    Sentence (a) means: Every member of my family dislikes garlic.
    Sentence (b) means: some members of my family like garlic but some do not.

    Because of this confusion, I think that students need to be very careful about these structures.

    Exercise

    Respond to the following comments. Try to use Nobody or Not everyone in your responses:
    1. Do some Japanese men still wear a top knot (ちょんまげ)?
    2. He's Japanese, so I suppose he must be good at karate.
    3. Hey, Bob. I hear you're from Liverpool. I bet you must be a good soccer player.
    4. I'm thinking of starting a cricket team here in Ena.
    5. I've heard that English people are very fond of horses.
         Please click here to see some suggested answers.

    Click here if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons.

    © Robert E. Jones, 2004