nobody, something

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

I have two questions to ask:

No.1
Something my sister was drawing attracted my attention. I had never seen her draw anthing like it before.
Can I replace "something" with "anything" and replace "anything" with "something"?

No.2
Everybody on campus except me knew that the professor had five sets of examinations, which he used in turn.
Can I use "no one" or "nobody" instead of "everybody"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

 

[Raymott]

Dear teachers,

I have two questions to ask:

No.1
Something my sister was drawing attracted my attention. I had never seen her draw anthing like it before.
Can I replace "something" with "anything"
Definitely not. You're referring to some (one) specific thing (something).

You can say "Anything my sister draws will be good". This means "It doesn't matter what you choose, if my sister draws it (drew it), it will be good".

and replace "anything" with "something"?
You could almost use 'something' in this context. But "anything" is still much better with a negative, as here.

No.2
Everybody on campus except me knew that the professor had five sets of examinations, which he used in turn.
Can I use "no one" or "nobody" instead of "everybody"?
No, they mean the opposite.
"Everybody knew it" is the opposite of "No one/Nobody knew it".

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

R.

 

[jiang]

Hi,
Haven't heard from you for a long long time.
Thank you very much for your explanation.

Everybody on campus except me knew that the professor had five sets of examinations, which he used in turn.

I should have explained that the sentence is:

____ on campus except me knew that the professor had five sets of examinations, which he used in turn.

a. everybody b. nobody
And the key is "a". Could you please kindly explain if I can choose "b"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

R.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi,
Haven't heard from you for a long long time.
Thank you very much for your explanation.

Everybody on campus except me knew that the professor had five sets of examinations, which he used in turn.

I should have explained that the sentence is:

____ on campus except me knew that the professor had five sets of examinations, which he used in turn.

a. everybody b. nobody
And the key is "a". Could you please kindly explain if I can choose "b"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

Unless I'm missing something vital, both answers a and b are possible.

If everybody on campus except you knew, then you were the only person who didn't know.
If nobody on campus except you knew, then you were the only person who knew.

They are both possible, and I can see nothing in the rest of the sentence that would help you choose which answer they were looking for.

 

[Raymott]

Unless I'm missing something vital, both answers a and b are possible.

That's true. I don't think you've missed anything.

For clarification, either word can be used in this sentence, but they mean opposite things. So, in that sense, asking 'Can I use "no one" or "nobody" instead of "everybody"?' is ambiguous. I can see now that jiang probably meant it in the way you've interpreted.