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Everybody smile!


Bernard M

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Hello everyone,

I've seen this expression "Everybody smile! ".

I would have written: "Everybody smiles! "...

So, my question: is "everybody" plural or singular or both?

Thank you for your help.

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In my opinion, being an indefinite pronoun it must be singular.so, 'Everybody smile! (plural form of smile is smiles) is correct. Therfore, smile took singular form.

Other indefinite pronouns are: 

No body, anybody, somebody, etc.

Regards,

Hari Kiran 

 

Edited by Chary
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  • Head Tutor

Hello Bernard and Hari,

You're both right. When 'everybody' is the subject of a sentence, it definitely takes a singular verb: Everybody smiles when they pose for a photo. (Hari, please note that the 'singular' verb form is with 's': smiles).

However, in Bernard's sentence, 'smile' is in the imperative form, which is the same as the base verb. Someone is asking everybody to smile for the photo: Everybody, SMILE (for the photo), please!

 

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Thank you, Chary.

I answer to myself :

we say "Everybody smile" because "everybody" is the subject of an imperative clause, with the base form of the verb.

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