Everyone wants to speak with correct grammar and accuracy. We all know how embarrassing it can be when you make mistakes in your speech with singular and plural pronouns and also apostrophes. The usage of “everyone” in sentences can be quite confusing. It is a word that can represent both single and plural pronouns. But you must remember that “everyone” is always singular. This means, “everyone” is correct whereas “everyones” is wrong.
We all know what the word “everyone” means. This word makes sense when we want to talk about a number of people. It refers to every individual in a group or team. But sometimes we get confused when we want to use the word “Everyone”.
We wonder different questions such as whether to use “everyone’s”, “everyones’” or “everyones” or which of them are better and so on. If you are looking for a solution to this, well you are at the right article. Now then we will discuss the probable questions with clarity.
What is the plural of “everyone”?
‘Everyone’ is an indefinite pronoun. Indefinite pronoun is something that is not definite which means it does not define something particular. It does not specify the thing or number. Rather, it refers to a group of something. That group can consist of any amount of people or things or anything. ‘Everyone’ is that type of word. Whether it is a group of two or three; when it is more than one, the next amount does not matter. It is the definition of Everyone being an indefinite pronoun.
Now, why did we bring up indefinite pronouns here? It is to answer the upper question. We cannot define whether an indefinite pronoun is singular or plural. In other words, we can vaguely say Indefinite pronouns do not have a plural. They are mostly introduced as singular meaning a group of any people, thing, quantity.
You can remember it through ‘a group’ which can easily be detected as singular. Though it has no grammatical review, if we can remember with techniques, nothing matters, right? However, we have to be cautious while explaining it to someone else.
In short, ‘everyone’ does not have its plural.
Everyone’s – grammatical explanation
The thing that most matters is how you want to interpret it. There are two ways to explain “Everyone’s” and they are: [i] you are using the short form of the (be) verb or [ii] you are using the possessive form.
[i] Using the short form of (be) verb means ‘Everyone is’ or ‘Everyone has.’ If you look at the examples, it will be clear.
- Everyone has done the job = Everyone’s done the job.
- Everyone is trying to reach the branch = Everyone’s trying to reach the branch.
[ii] Now the second variation. The possessive form is for expressing possession of something. For example, some possessive pronouns are ours, yours, his, hers, etc. If we try to have the possessive form of Everyone, it is “Everyone’s.”
- Everyone’s house should be inspected = The house of everyone should be inspected.
Everyones’ – grammatical explanation
When the word ends with an ‘s’ and we need to add an apostrophe (where using an ‘s’ is the rule) to it, we don’t put the additional s to it. For example, if a man named Agnes has a dog and it disappeared; we will write it like,
“Agnes’ dog has disappeared”
In that way, Everyones’ of course makes sense. But that would have been correct if Everyone had a plural word. Since we know Everyone has no plural word which could have been Everyones and that way Everyones’ word also could have been valid. But it does not work that way.
Everyones – grammatical explanation
As we have already explained, ‘Everyone’ has no plural word, and thus the word Everyones also has no valid meaning. The only way to connect an ‘s’ to ‘Everyone’ is ‘Everyone’s’ that can be done in two ways.
Everyone’s v/s everyones’ v/s everyones
Everyone’s is the only valid word among these three which can be used in two ways. One is to use the short form of ‘Everyone is’ or ‘Everyone has.’ The other one is for explaining its possessive form.
However, because of being an indefinite word, Everyone is neither plural nor has any plural form. This is why the other two words Everyones’ and everyones do not exist.
“Everyone’s” or “everyones’” or “everyones”
After explaining every other thing of these three words, you must already have reached a conclusion. The answer to your very first question is to use the first one as it is the only valid word among them. In conclusion, Everyone’s is the right word and you should use it. We hope that we have succeeded in clearing your confusion through this article.