Today’s lesson is good for the writers out there.  I’m looking at the words anyone and anytime. Both can be used as one word or two. When do we use one word and when do we use two separate words, that’s the question!  Let’s find out!

Anyone is an indefinite pronoun – we use it when we are talking generally about people.  We are referring to absolutely any person at all.  It is a singular pronoun and a synonym of anybody.

Here’s an example:

Does anyone know what time it is?
It’s general.  I don’t care who tells me the time, I just need to find out the time!

But when do we use two words? Any one is a noun phrase, and you can find out how to use it in this video!

Anytime is an adverb that means whenever. It’s quite informal, so don’t use it in writing that is more formal.

I might write in an email to a friend: “Call me anytime, day or night”. More examples are in the video – make sure to watch!

Any time can be used two ways. Firstly as an adverb, or it can also be a noun phrase. Examples are in the video.

We can use the preposition ‘at’ to make the phrase at any time, to show that something will happen soon, but nobody knows exactly when. In this case always use two words – you can’t use ‘at anytime’. It’s incorrect.

Make sure to watch the video to find out how to use these words. Comments can be left under the video on YouTube.

Until next time!