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How do I express the sentence

"Every person has a season in which the person thrives"

in the form

"For every person there is a season ..."

without changing the intended meaning?

Mathematically, the second sentence would be written as

"For every person there is a season such that the person thrives in the season",

or, formally,

"For every person p there is a season s such that p thrives in s".

Nevertheless, since I am not an English native speaker, out of curiosity, I wonder how could that sentence be written in plain English, rather than mathematical English?

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  • If you have a Bible, look up Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 - 8. This is literally the canonical form of the quotation you want.
    – Jasper
    Oct 15, 2014 at 3:38
  • @Jasper: Thanks. I guess I did not make myself clear enough. Please see the later edition :)
    – Yes
    Oct 15, 2014 at 3:41
  • Not Ecclesiastes, but Every dog has his day. :-)
    – TimR
    Oct 15, 2014 at 14:09
  • @TRomano: Pardon me? I don't get what you mean.
    – Yes
    Oct 15, 2014 at 14:10
  • idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Every+dog+has+its+day
    – TimR
    Oct 15, 2014 at 14:21

4 Answers 4

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As the saying goes, every dog has his day. But it sounds too infomal. I think We can say every person has his/her day or every person is in his/her heyday one day. I think the word season does not fit here. Maybe we can say every person has his/her day(s) in which he/she thrives.

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For every person, there is a season in which they thrive.

For every person, there is a season in which he or she thrives.

Also, it's beyond the scope of your question, but some will argue that you should not use they to refer to a singular noun (as I have above). This is a matter of debate, and if you're interested, you can read more here: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/06/he-or-she-versus-they/.

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If you're trying to avoid formal predication and if, by "plain English", you mean that you are looking for a casual way of saying it...

Everyone has their heyday or Everyone has his|her heyday.

(with the same caveat that nmar offered, about the use of their instead of the singular his or her). You can get around that contentious issue (at least among copy editors) with:

We all have our heyday.

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If the OP means "season" literally (e.g. some people have Seasonal Affective Disorder when the sun leaves in the winter), then it would be something like:

Every person has a season in which they feel at their most energetic.

or

Everyone has a season in which they feel at their best.

or

Everyone has a favorite season.

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