As you may know if you subscribe, my blog is a repository for my opinions, considerations, and point of view. It’s all things writerly – and not – in my world.
Ir’s my appointment to write. At least once a week, 50 wks./yr., I settle my fingers on the keyboard, butt firmly in the desk chair.
Lately I’ve been contemplating pronouns. You know, those shadowy words we use to replace nouns. While political correctness has seized the day and ‘they’ is in the crosshairs, I have an alternate dichotomy in mind: the use of somebody vs. someone.
‘Somebody’ refers to an unnamed, unspecified person, as does the broadly accusatory use of ‘they’ I’ve proverbally despised.
Perhaps you know the perp’s name, but it isn’t relevant to the situation. The term ‘somebody’ should be selected. If you are living in a home with several people, you might say, “Did somebody lock the door?” You know the names of these individuals, but it isn’t important who locked the door. It’s merely important that it was done by somebody.
Since only my husband and I inhabit our house – with not even a dog to blame – we state infractions like this, “Somebody forgot to throw out the trash.”
We’re not histrionic about it. We’ll leave that to Queen –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA2IRoPFIn0
‘Someone’ is also an indefinite pronoun, but it has a slightly different use. “Someone” is considered to be slightly more formal than somebody. If you were writing a term paper, a blog post, or a professional email, the word ‘someone’ is prized over ‘somebody.”‘For example, “Someone will come get you when the doctor is ready.”
Let’s ponder musicians’ word choice between these alternate words. While Freddie Mercury chose ‘somebody’, the Beatles collaboratively chose ‘someone,’ in this song –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt5OoWr4v1k
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