What is the difference between всякий and любой?

Question

What is the difference between всякий and любой? It seems that they both mean "any, every"?

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 13 '15 at 03:09

7

любой straight-up means "any"; всякий is more along the lines of "every kind of", "all manner of", etc. всякий sees a lot more colloquial usage, but when it's occasionally used directly instead of любой it actually sounds more bookish and antiquated (Всякий, кто осмелится войти, понесёт наказание).

answered Apr 13 '15 at 03:09

Nikolay Ershov

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Just a remark, всякий can also mean 'different'. – Yellow Sky Apr 13 '15 at 06:56

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '15 at 06:25

As Nikolay Ershov noted before, differences do occur. As an added illustration:

     в любое время              всякий раз            каждый раз
      at any time               every time            each time

     любой человек             всякий человек        каждый человек
        anyone                   everyone              everyone

      любой день                всякий день           каждый день
    a day, any day               every day         day by day, daily

I think this is self-explanatory.

What is the difference between всякий and любой?

2 Answers2