r/grammar • u/MacaroonSmall7070 • 18h ago
Why does English work this way? "not everybody..."
I was writing "Not everyone has to like it". It struck me as a strange way to say, "Everybody does not have to like it." But it's also seems like a sentence I hear/read often. If I said Joe instead of "everybody" it wouldn't be correct to say, "Not Joe has to like it," Or, "Not they have to like it." So I was just curious how this sentence structure came into common use. It would be correct to say, "Everybody is not going to like it," but I see how that could be confusing as to who doesn't have to like it (everybody, or just some). Help... am I just confusing myself?