Anyone vs someone

ESL teacher   Tuesday, April 05, 2005, 18:31 GMT
How to explain when to use "anyone" vs "someone". Sometimes we use them discretely, but not always. For example, I might say "Can someone help me?" or "Can anyone help me?" with no difference in meaning. But I would ask: "Does anyone know the answer?" rather than "Does someone know the answer?". It's subtle (and maybe just what we're used to hearing. (The same goes for anybody, somebody)

Any thoughts?
Deborah   Tuesday, April 05, 2005, 19:14 GMT
Some thoughts?
Deborah   Wednesday, April 06, 2005, 01:34 GMT
I haven't thought this through to see whether it always applies, but I think "someone" implies speaking about one person, while "anyone" implies that it could be more than one person.

In the first example, even though you might be asking help from a group of people (so "anyone" works), you really only expect help from one person (so "someone" also works). In the second example, I think there's an implication that more than one person is expected to know the answer.
Travis   Wednesday, April 06, 2005, 02:31 GMT
In my opinion, the big difference between "someone" and "anyone" is that "someone" refers to some person, and that person is specific, even though it may not be known, while "anyone" refers to some person, and all people are equally interchangeable as said individual.
sho   Wednesday, April 06, 2005, 06:47 GMT
i think when you use the word "someone" you're likely to expect the answer to be "yes" and when you're really not sure, you use "anyone".
for example, if you say "Is someone there?", it implies that you somehow know / think someone is there, and if you say "Is anyone there?", it's more like you're really not sure if anyone is there.

so i guess you could say "does someone know the answer" when you expect someone to know the answer.