Learn English – Difference between “somewhere” and “anywhere”

differences

  • Do you live anywhere near him?
  • Do you live somewhere near him?

Is there any difference between these two sentences?

Best Answer

Somewhere refers to a specific place while anywhere refers to, well, any place. However, it is one of the endearing (or frustrating) traits of English that those two can mean the same thing at the same time. Sometimes.

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy sings of "Somewhere over the rainbow," which refers to a specific place of happiness she might someday visit. She is imagining a single location.

In the song "Anywhere I Go" the neo-ska / permanently stoned band Slightly Stoopid talks about "Anywhere I go I choose to be with you," meaning wherever "I" go, be it Kalamazoo or Djibouti, "I" will choose to be with "you". This could be any location.