each / every / each and every

The distributive determiners each and every, the emphatic each and every, and the agreement of the verbs and pronouns that follow them.

Each and every are distributive determiners. Both take a singular noun and a singular verb. Which to use depends on the emphasis you want. Each directs attention to the individual members, so it suits a sentence in which something is done to them in turn or differs among them: The mechanic inspected each tire. Every also refers to the individual members, but its point is that the statement holds for the full set: Every tire on the trailer is new.

Each and every is standard and takes a singular verb. The phrase combines the two emphases: the members taken separately, and none left out. Use it only when that double emphasis is the point of the sentence, as in a promise or a claim that nothing was overlooked. In a routine statement the phrase adds length without adding meaning, so use each or every.

Each is also a pronoun. As a subject, whether alone or before an of phrase, it takes a singular verb: Each of the ballots bears a serial number. The verb agrees with each, the subject. Ballots is the object of the preposition of, so it does not affect the number of the verb. Every one of works the same way: Every one of the ballots bears a serial number. A plural verb after each of, as in each of the ballots bear, is not standard, and many people judge the speaker who uses it.

When each follows a plural subject, the plural subject sets the number of the verb: The ferries each carry forty cars. Each stands in apposition to ferries; it is not the subject. The same rule holds in a relative clause: ferries that each carry forty cars. The relative pronoun that takes its number from its antecedent, the plural ferries.

A later pronoun that refers to each or every with a singular noun naming people is they, their, or them: Every tenant renews their lease in June. For a group made up only of men, use his; for a group made up only of women, use her.

A sentence in which not follows every can be read two ways. Every printer wasn’t working can mean that no printer was working or that some printers were not working. Recast it in one of two ways.

When some printers were working and some were not, put not before every: Not every printer was working.

When all of them were out of order, use no: No printer was working.

Examples

Use The editor gave each chapter its own epigraph. (Each fits because the epigraph differs from chapter to chapter.)

Use Every well in the valley tested clean. (Every stresses that no well was an exception.)

Use Each of the night nurses works a twelve-hour shift. (Works agrees with the subject, each. Nurses is the object of the preposition of.)

Avoid Each of the night nurses work a twelve-hour shift. (Work is the error. The subject is the singular each, not nurses, so the verb must be singular. Write Each of the night nurses works a twelve-hour shift.)

Use The two clinics each employ a full-time pharmacist.

Avoid The two clinics each employs a full-time pharmacist. (Employs is the error. Each stands in apposition to clinics, and the plural subject clinics takes a plural verb. Write The two clinics each employ a full-time pharmacist.)

Use Not every page of the contract was signed. (Some pages were signed, and at least one was not.)

Avoid Every page of the contract wasn’t signed. (The error is not placed after every. The sentence can mean that no page was signed or that some pages were unsigned. Write Not every page of the contract was signed if some pages were signed, or No page of the contract was signed if none was.)

Use The auditors traced each and every payment the treasurer made that year. (The phrase stresses that the audit missed no payment.)

Avoid Each and every volume in the set is bound in green cloth. (Each and every is the error: a plain description gains nothing from the doubled emphasis. Write Every volume in the set is bound in green cloth.)

Some dictionaries treat a plural verb after each of as standard, on the basis of notional agreement: the sense that the group is plural. In published American books since 2000, each of them is outnumbers each of them are by about ten to one. Use the singular.