Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 11 down vote favorite
1

What is the correct form? Does context play a role?

Are there noticeable trends towards the awkward "noone" or is it just a by-product of careless orthography on the Internet?

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 15 down vote accepted

"no one" is the correct one.

noone is the common misspelling of "no one".

"Noone" is formed for consistency with "nobody", and also its opposites "anyone" and "everyone", but it is still considered nonstandard because of the doubled vowels creating a temptation to read and pronounce it as "noon" (/nuːn/).

On the other hand, no-one is the alternative spelling of "no one". I don't think it's widely used.

share|improve this answer
2  
Correction: no-one is quite widely used within British English. noone is indeed wrong. – Noldorin Jan 13 '11 at 23:25
I agree with @Noldorin. Though "no-one"is not particularly good-looking either, I don't use "no one", because it feels very much like one word, and because of slight confusion in sentences like "no one word could express this" (though perhaps you would use "single" in this example). Besides, I think "nobody" often replaces it at any rate. – Cerberus Jan 14 '11 at 0:09
1  
@Noldorin: Mostly in my experience, the British use no one. Though I have seen all three aplenty. – Orbling Jan 14 '11 at 0:17
@Orbling: I see both quite a lot to be honest. Don't ask for statistics though. :) – Noldorin Jan 14 '11 at 1:09
4  
No love for noöne? – Jon Purdy Jan 14 '11 at 8:14
show 5 more comments

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.