I would like to thank everyone for their/ I would like to thank everyone for your

Question

I have searched on the in the internet for examples of both usages and I came across this post in a thread at this forum

• We would like to thank everyone for their support.
• We would like to thank you all for your support.
• We would like to thank all of you for your support.

However, the poster does not go into the details as of why it has to be that way. What I wanted to say was "I would like to thank everyone for their awesomeness" while talking to a group of friends. However, I hesitated and I "corrected" myself by saying "I would like to thank everyone for your awesomeness" in the same situation. However, I am not sure of which sentence is correct. I will appreciate your expertise on this one!

Answer 1

"Their" is third person, used when you are talking about people who are not present or who are not the people you are speaking to. "Your" is second person, used when you are talking about the people you are speaking to.

So if you are talking to the people you want to thank, you would say "thank you for your support". If you are telling group A that you appreciate that support you got from group B, you would say "I want to thank B for their support."

If you are talking to a group that includes both the people you want to thank and others who are simply part of the audience, either could be appropriate. If you identified the specific group, you'd probably use "their". Like, "I want to thank the people from the Foobar Department for their support." If you were speaking more generally, like in your example, "I want to thank you all for your support".

All the sentences you give are grammatically valid and would probably mean the same thing. (Always depending on context.)