What Are Their Similarities?

2.

We can use them in affirmative sentences and in interrogatives expecting a particular answer;

3.

Both can be used to refer to general and specific people;

4.

They both take singular verbs.

Example

Someone's injured in the car accident.

He asked somebody to help him.

What Are Their Differences?

1.

'Somebody' is more common in spoken English;

2.

'Someone' is more common in written English.

Don't Use Them in Negative Sentences

Attention! We do not use 'somebody' and 'someone' as objects in negative sentences.

Example

I don't know someone who works at a bank.

I don't know anyone who works at a bank.

Subtle Difference in Meaning (1)

We use 'someone' or 'somebody' when we are expecting to hear the answer 'yes'. For example, if we think there is someone at the house, we ask:

Example

Is someone here?

If we do not know whether there is a person in the house or not, we would ask:

Example

Is anyone here?

Subtle Difference in Meaning (2)

'Someone' is used when you want to refer to a person in a group of people, but you do not know whom you are referring to.
'Somebody' is used when you want to refer to a person with slight significance. It refers to the person whom you possibly know but not in that particular current situation.

Example

Someone left the door open.

You don't suspect anyone in particular, you just know someone has forgotten to lock the door.

Somebody left the door open.

There's a slight accusation in this sentence. It means you probably know who's left the door open, you're just not sure.

Do They Have Plural Forms?

'Someone' and 'somebody' do NOT have plural forms. If we want to refer to a group of people, we use 'some people'.

Example

Some people were injured in the car accident.

Comments

(3)
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Magnifico Perfecto Giganticus
Nov 2024
" 'Someone' and 'somebody' do NOT have plural forms. If we want to refer to a group of people, we use 'some people'. " - How about a group of more than one "someone", None of which are "somebody": Sears, X, Amazon, Intel, Krogers, etc. Would that be 'some persons'? or 'someones'?
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Langeek
Nov 2024
"Someone" and "somebody" don’t have plural forms. For a group, use "some people" (most common) or "some persons" (formal/legal). "Someones" is very informal and rare.
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Kayla Loerzel
Apr 2023
I absolutely loved the subtle context differences. I told someone the other day that I thought they were a 'someone' not a somebody because I knew them compared to the 'somebody' that was not them and was hoping they would catch onto that slight difference. If they were to listen to the song 'Song For Someone' by U2 they would understand.
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