No One vs. Anyone

'No one' and 'anyone' are both indefinite pronouns that are used to refer to no person or thing in particular. Here, we will discuss these two pronouns.

Are They Opposites?

Anyone

'Anyone' refers to 'any person at all, no matter who' (we use it when it does not matter who the person is). Remember that In this case, the word 'anyone' is always written together as one word without any space between 'any' and 'one'.

Anyone can participate in this contest.

Did you see anyone?

Is 'Any One' Correct, Too?

The only way you might see the noun phrase 'any one' (with space between them) is when we want to refer to a member of a certain group.

Any one of these people can win the lottery.

'Who do you think did this?' 'It could be any one of those kids.'

'No One'

'No one' is another indefinite pronoun that refers to the absence of a person, i.e. it means 'not anyone; no person'. Sometimes, writers write 'no one' with a dash: 'no-one'.

No one was able to break Allison's record.

No one is at home. Let's go out to dinner.

Negative Makers

'Anyone' can be used in negative sentences and questions. But, 'no one' is a negative marker by itself and it can make a sentence negative.

No one was at home. (Not no one ~~wasn't~~ at home.)

The verb is positive, but the sentence is negative, because of 'no one' which is a negative marker.

Can't anyone help you out?

The sentence is negative, because the verb is negative, not because of 'anyone'.

Can We Use 'No One of'?

Do not use 'of' after 'no one'.

No ~~one~~ of us can speak Russian fluently.

Instead, you should use 'none of of'.

None of us can speak Russian fluently.

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