I Don’t Countable Nouns I’ve Singular Form Indefinite

We use any before nouns to refer to indefinite or unknown quantities or an unlimited entity:

Did you bring any bread?

Mr Jacobson refused to answer any questions.

If I were able to travel back to any place and time in history, I would go to ancient China.

Any as a determiner has two forms: a strong form and a weak form. The forms have different meanings.

Any can be used as a pronoun (without a noun following) when the noun is understood.

A:

Have you got some £1 coins on you?

B:

Sorry, I don’t think I have any. (understood: I don’t think I have any £1 coins.)

[parents talking about their children’s school homework]

A:

Do you find that Elizabeth gets lots of homework? Marie gets a lot.

B:

No not really. She gets hardly any. (understood: She gets hardly any homework.)

A:

What did you think of the cake? It was delicious, wasn’t it?

B:

I don’t know. I didn’t get any. (understood: I didn’t get any of the cake.)

We use any with of before articles (a/an, the), demonstratives (this, these), pronouns (you, us) or possessives (his, their):

Shall I keep any of these spices? I think they’re all out of date.

Not: … any these spices?

We use any of to refer to a part of a whole:

Are any of you going to the meeting?

I couldn’t answer any of these questions.

I listen to Abba but I’ve never bought any of their music.

Any doesn’t have a negative meaning on its own. It must be used with a negative word to mean the same as no.

The examples with no in the right-hand column above give greater emphasis than the examples with not any in the left-hand column.

We use any and every to talk about the total numbers of things in a group. Their meanings are not exactly the same:

Any doctor can prescribe medicine. (or Every doctor can …)

Every always refers to the total number of something. Any refers to one, several or all of a total number. We use every not any with singular countable nouns when we mean ‘each individual member of a group of something’.

We use any with comparative adjectives and adverbs:

You can’t buy this laptop any cheaper than here. (It isn’t possible to buy the laptop cheaper in another place.)

I’ll see if we can go any faster. (faster than we are going now)

• We don’t use ‘weak form’ any with singular countable nouns:

They have a big lunch in school so they don’t need a hot meal in the evening.

Not: … so they don’t need any hot meal in the evening.

• We use every not any with singular countable nouns when we mean ‘each individual member of a group’:

The hotel is luxurious and it has every type of activity.

Not: … it has any type of activity …

• We don’t use ‘weak form’ any on its own in statements. We use no or we put a negative word, e.g. not, before it:

There were no lifts so we had to climb five flights of stairs.

There weren’t any lifts so we had to climb five flights of stairs.

Not: There were any lifts …

• We use some not any before countable nouns in statements to refer to an indefinite quantity of something:

I must buy some plants. They’re so nice.

Not: I must buy any plants.