Hi
To anyone who <is familiar with … / has a heart/ … whatever> [i]it is clear that…
To everyone who [/i]<…> it is clear that…
Could you say, which one sounds more ‘categorical’? (if they are not ‘equal’)
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‘Categorical’? I would suggest: ‘Which one sounds more inclusive?’-- but then, I am not sure what you are looking for here in the way of a difference, Tamara.
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Sorry, if I used the wrong or confusing word.
categorical:
- Being without exception or qualification; absolute.
bartleby.com/61/2/C0160200.html
categorical:
- without exceptions or conditions; absolute; unqualified and unconditional
dictionary.reference.com/search? … cally&r=66
categorical (also categoric): unambiguously explicit and direct
askoxford.com/concise_oed/ca … al?view=uk
The reason I ask is that to me, with my Russian background, to everyone sounds a bit ‘more absolute’ (:)), but I assume that in English the above fragments can be (/sound) equivalent.
To anyone who = to some person who – it doesn’t matter who or how many people.
To everyone who = to all people who.
Hi
(Not considering here phrases like Everyone who’s anyone [in music/ in trade publishing/ …])
Thanks, Conchita.
As ‘anyone’ and ‘everyone’ in Russian are also different words, I understand the difference in the two meanings you explained.
More or less.
But when I read some English phrases I feel that I’m not sure at all which one I should use if I needed to translate them in Russian by using one of the two.
[size=92](By the way, for such cases, especially), there is a Russian word всякий that, in fact, means ‘anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody’.
Sheet anchor. :))[/size]
For example, let’s take the phrase: Not everyone who uses a computer fixes it themselves
From the point of meaning ‘Not anyone who uses a computer fixes it themselves.’ would have the same meaning:
‘There are people who use a computer but don’t fix it themselves.’ (:))
But the two phrases sound differently, and the second (in my view) would make more emphasis that there is at least [size=117]someone[/size] who differs from others in that sense.
Whereas the first phrase with ‘not everyone’ sounds (to me) neutral.
But I don’t know… This is the case when I would use in translation that ‘third’ Russian word that makes no distinction between ‘anyone’ and ‘everyone’…
PS
But at least she could be certain of one thing: it wasn’t a place where there was a risk of meeting anyone from the power station, at least not anyone who mattered. (BNC)
[size=84](Just a tiny ‘wordy’ joke. If it is. :))[/size]