Q1)
A. We all have a nose.
B. We all have noses.
Are they both equally fine?
Q2) When each of us has a bag and the bags are of the same kind,
A. We all have the same bag.
B. We all have the same bags.
Are they both fine?
Thank you.
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We all* have noses, All of us have noses* or We each* have a nose, Each of us has a nose*. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '21 at 12:29
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1Does this answer your question? Is the word "all" singular or plural? See also "Each of them is" or "each of them are"? – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '21 at 12:30
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No, it doesn't. What I'm asking has nothing to do with the word, "all". – kuwabara Oct 07 '22 at 05:46
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What I want to know is whether "We have a bag." and "We have bags." can have the same meaning or not. This question has nothing to do with "all". – kuwabara Oct 07 '22 at 05:46
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If this question has nothing to do with "all", why did you include *all* in your examples? You need to know that by default syntactically speaking, We all* have a nose* would mean that we collectively own a single nose (it's just that semantically, that doesn't make much sense). The "sensible" meaning is expressed by We each* have a nose. Also, your second* pair of examples are pointlessly confusing because the word *same* could either imply multiple bags of the same type** OR a single* bag, collectively owned*. – FumbleFingers Oct 11 '22 at 14:08
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That's what I wanted to know. I was wondering if the sentence is pointlessly confusing. Thank you. – kuwabara Oct 15 '22 at 06:23
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The expression "We all have a/an…” is very common in English, for example:
We all have a story / a threshold / a vested interest
We all have a past / a dark side / a cross to bear
We all have a role / a responsibility
We all have an ego / an iPhone / an idea etc.
I'd prefer the singular "a nose" but everyone would understand (b) "We all have noses" because our life experience tells us that humans don't have two or more noses. A less ambiguous statement would be
- Everyone has a nose
- Each one of us has a nose
However the OP's second example, "We all have the same bags", needs clarification because it could suggest that each person is carrying two or more bags that are identical.
Mari-Lou A
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Do you have a preference between "We each have a nose" and "We all have a nose"? To me, the latter literally means that we all share one nose, and only from the ridiculous meaning it's understood to mean the former. – gotube Dec 19 '21 at 23:21
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@gotube "We each have a nose", "Each one of us has a nose" and "Everyone has a nose" are probably the best. I suppose interpreting "we all have a nose" could mean we all share the same nose but I have never understood it that way. Likewise one could think "We all have noses" the same way as "We all have eyes" or "ears" suggesting that we have more than one nose. – Mari-Lou A Dec 20 '21 at 09:16