Consider the sentences below;
Has anyone seen my wallet?
Both of these sentences have used the words anyone and any one correctly, question is can you use them correctly? If you can’t figure out when to use which of these, keep reading as this article will tell you everything about the two words.
Anyone as pronoun:
Did anyone see the accident?
Anyone as a pronoun meaning “anybody” or “any person at all” is written as one word. It is used when there are no qualifications to the grouping. Something could belong to anyone if there are no distinguishing marks or unique factors.
Any one as adjective phrase:
Any one is a combination of two words which is generally not listed in dictionaries except perhaps to distinguish the differences with anyone. Any one is a term that means any single object or person.
Anyone willing to part with between £20,000 and £200,000 for a week’s holiday can live in the homes of the rich and famous while they are away, order their staff around, and make use of their cars, tennis courts and swimming pools. [The Guardian]
Impressively, everything is available to tweak and tune if you so desire from the very start but the stock settings on each car are good enough to get you around any one of the current 110 track variations. [Scottish Daily Record]
Anyone or any one:
Anyone or any one, both are grammatically singular, regardless of meaning. But there is a difference in meaning between the one- and two-word versions: when you type anyone, you're referring to people; when you type any one you may be referring to people, but not necessarily--it depends on what follows or what is understood. For example, perhaps you mean 'any one of the customers' (in which case you are referring to people); or maybe you mean 'any one of the petunias' or (in which case you are not referring to people). In sum, any one means one of a group (of people or things), rather than one person (anyone) or a bunch of people (everyone).