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I am always at loggerheads with MS Word in this case. I write a sentence with 'any body' and it pops up its annoying blue underline suggesting 'anybody'.

The question: should I let it correct it? Does the meaning change? Personally, I don't like this correction.

Example:

The catastrophic disaster left the city with hundreds of bodies. While walking through the corpses with my heavy heart and tears in my eyes, I kept on shouting, “If you find any body [MS Office suggestion -anybody] even with the slightest movement, call for emergency. Jesus, help us.”

Anybody = Any body = Any corpse here?

Maulik V
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    You are right. When you are indeed talking about bodies, the space is correct. Word annoys you because many people include the space when it should not be there. Do not let it correct it when you know you are right. You can tell word to ignore that instance :) – oerkelens Jun 05 '14 at 11:35
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    See Canonical Post #1 – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 05 '14 at 11:37
  • that's useful, sir. @StoneyB – Maulik V Jun 05 '14 at 12:00
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    @Maulik: Because some human readers are at least as dumb as MS-Word, it would be far better to avoid the unwanted overtones of *anybody/anyone* in the first place. The word *any* serves no real purpose there anyway, so I'd suggest replacing the queried text with plain *a body. Also note that idiomatically it would almost always be with even the slightest movement, not even with*. – FumbleFingers Jun 05 '14 at 13:16
  • I would use the word "corpses" and avoid the awkward expression "any body" and its nearness to "anybody". – rogermue Jun 05 '14 at 13:18
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    @rogermue - Corpses would/should never be moving. Bodies, on the other hand, may show signs of life. – MrWonderful Jun 05 '14 at 13:40
  • @FumbleFingers good and got it. But don't you think putting any emphasizes it better? Or you are merely suggesting to avoid that word as it follows body? Thanks for the even tip. – Maulik V Jun 05 '14 at 14:46
  • @MrWonderful very right. That's why I used body there – Maulik V Jun 05 '14 at 14:48
  • @Maulik: I can see what you're getting at, and in theory your thinking is correct, and would indeed apply in many closely-related contexts. But in this exact context it would probably come across as "weird" even if it weren't for the *any body / anybody* problem, because it suggests that if you hadn't made that specific point, rescuers might have ignored some bodies that were moving. And you'd really have to go some to imagine a context where that would make *any* sense at all. – FumbleFingers Jun 05 '14 at 15:20
  • @MrWonderful - ...except, perhaps, during a zombie apocalypse. ;^) – J.R. Jun 05 '14 at 15:23
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    @J.R.: Perhaps my copy of "Guidance for Citizens in the Event of a Zombie Apocalypse" is a bit out-of-date (if we're to believe all the zombie movies of the last couple of decades, anti-zombie measures have advanced considerably in recent years). My one just says if you see a dead body moving, *Run!. But I expect a more recent copy would probably advise you to log the location on your iPod so security forces can deal with it (unless of course your iPod has the "Zombie-Be-Gone"* app installed, complete with relevant hardware upgrades such as flame-thrower! :) – FumbleFingers Jun 05 '14 at 16:09
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    A body does seem better in this case. Any body would be fine in other situations, though. Note that it's distinguished in pronunciation from anybody by the third vowel. –  Jun 05 '14 at 18:24
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    +1 for a body. We wouldn't say "if you find any apple in the street"; we'd say "if you find an apple in the street" or "if you find any apples in the street". Any goes with a plural; a/an goes with the singular. – hairboat Jun 09 '14 at 23:32
  • @AbbyT.Miller Any goes with plural? Sure? If you find an apple in the street is okay, but if I want to emphasize ONE apple out of 100s lying in the street, it takes any. If you find any apple (among those 100s) with yellow dot on it, it has gold inside.* 'Any' keeps that special thing separate from others. – Maulik V Jun 10 '14 at 04:30
  • @MaulikV Any can work with plurals (or singulars) and does precisely the opposite of what you said. It indicates that what's being talked about isn't special or unique, and that any member of the class will do, because it doesn't matter which one. In your apple example, you are not emphasizing one specific apple. You are saying there may be many apples with gold dots, and that all of them contain gold. It doesn't matter which apple you pick; if it has a yellow dot, there's gold inside. – Esoteric Screen Name Jun 10 '14 at 07:30
  • You din' get me. By specific apple I meant the apple with yellow dot. So, if you find any apple with yellow dot, it has gold inside. – Maulik V Jun 10 '14 at 07:33
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    You're right, I didn't. If there's only one specific apple with a yellow dot, say the apple. If there are multiple such apples, say any or every apple, because these imply there may be many apples of that type. – Esoteric Screen Name Jun 10 '14 at 08:55
  • "If you find an apple in the street with a yellow dot, pick it up because it has gold inside." "If you find any apples in the street with yellow dots, pick them up because they have gold inside." "If you find the apple in the street with a yellow dot, pick it up because it has gold inside." "An" or "the" are for the singular apple; "any" is for the plural. – hairboat Jun 10 '14 at 16:09
  • @AbbyT.Miller Sources claimed that any person* about whom security personnel have some suspicion is being questioned.* Any for a singular thing. And why not... if you find any apple with a yellow dot... is absolutely fine and understandable. – Maulik V Jun 11 '14 at 04:51
  • "Sources claimed that every person about whom security personnel have some suspicion is being questioned" or "Sources claimed that any people/persons about whom security personnel have some suspicion are being questioned_" both sound better. – Adam Dec 19 '14 at 16:54

1 Answers1

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No, anybody does not mean the same as any body or any corpse (but the latter two are roughly equivalent in this context). As noted by FumbleFingers in the comments, this is a mistake on Word's part, because automated grammar analysis is quite difficult to do well. Anybody is a synonym for anyone, and that's definitely not what you want to say here.

Given the context, I take it the speaker in the passage is searching the corpses for possible survivors, and wants to check every body that moves. I'd change the phrasing to this:

If you find any bodies with even the slightest movement

I suggest any bodies because...

  • There are hundreds of bodies
  • There may be more than one moving body
  • Every body showing signs of movement merits an emergency call

If the speaker were searching for any body, then the search could stop after finding one, because any [single] body satisfies the condition (showing any amount of movement).

MrWonderful rightly points out that the use of any corpses sounds strange, because there's no question about whether a corpse is dead or not.

I would not omit bodies, because If you find any with even doesn't work well without some preceding dialogue specifying the ellipted noun. It begs the question any what; bodies, survivors, animals, rock slides? The context does make it clear to the reader, but it takes mental work to dig out. The listeners in the story might not find it so clear, especially since they're likely distracted and stressed by the tragedy at hand.

I've also switched the order of even, placing it after with, though this has nothing to do with the use of any bodies. Moving even changes the semantics of the clause. Even with emphasizes the bodies; the search becomes for bodies, even those which may be slightly moving, which includes unmoving corpses. But the speaker here is looking exclusively for bodies with [even the slightest] movement, meaning that any degree of motion greater than zero qualifies (so corpses are excluded). Both constructions convey that moving bodies will be rare, but their conditionally qualifying sets differ.

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Esoteric Screen Name
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