Wednesday, April 4, 2018

determiners - "every" vs "each"?


Consider:



The ten lucky winners will ................. receive $1,000.




A) every


B) each


The answer in the book is each. As far as I know, every and each are used before singular nouns. I cannot understand the grammatical structure of the sentence. The only thing that I can guess is that each, as oppose to every, is also pronoun but, I don't know how this would help!




Note 1: The book preview option is not available although the book can be found on the google books!


Note 2: I know each has different connotation from every; the former has one-by-one connotation, the latter has a collective connotation; the problem is about the grammar.



Answer



The ten lucky winners will......receive $1,000.


Each and every are often similar in meaning. The only difference is between their usage as follows:


First, you use each when there are two or more things in a group, whereas you use every when there are three or more things in a group.



Second, the usage of each gives stress to individual things in the group, whereas every refers to things in the group as a whole. For example, every student passed the test = All the students passed the test.


Third, each is used as a determinor, pronoun, or adverb, but every is only used as a determiner.


Each and every are only interchangeable to convey the same meaning when there are three or more things in a group, and we use them as a determiner, without considering the stress they indicate.


Look at the following sentences to find how every is used as a determiner, and each is used as a determiner, pronoun, and adverb:


Every lucky winner will receive $1,000. (determiner)


Every one of the ten lucky winners will receive $1,000.(determiner)


Each lucky winner will receive $1,000. (determiner)


Each of the ten lucky winners will receive $1000.(pronoun)


The ten lucky winners will each receive $1,000. (pronoun)


The ten lucky winners will receive $1,000 each. (adverb).



As 'each' as a pronoun fits in the blank space of the sentence presented by the OP, you cannot use the determiner every here.


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