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50. Some, any, no and none
(adjectives and pronouns)
A.1. some
and any mean 'a certain
number or amount'. They are used with or instead of plural or uncountable nouns.
(For some/any with singular nouns, see C below.) some is a possible
plural form of a/an and one:
Have a biscuit/some biscuits.
I ate a date/some dates.
some, any and none
can be used with of +
the/this/these/those/ possessives/personal pronouns:
Some of the staff can speak
Japanese.
Did any of your photos come out
well?
2.
some is used:
With affirmative verbs:
They bought some honey.
In questions where the answer 'yes'
is expected:
Did some of you sleep on the floor?
(I expect so.)
In offers and requests:
Would you like some wine?
Could you do some typing for me?
(See also C.)
3. any is
used:
With negative verbs:
I
haven't any matches.
With hardly, barely, scarcely
(which are almost negatives):
7 have hardly any spare time. With
without when without any . . . =
with no . . . :
He crossed the frontier without any
difficulty/with no difficulty.
With questions except the types
noted above:
Have you got any money?
Did he catch any fish?
After if/whether and in
expressions of doubt:
If you need any more money, please
let me know.
I don't think there is any petrol in
the tank. (See also C.)
B. no (adjective) and none
(pronoun)
no and none
can be used with affirmative verbs
to express a negative:
I have no apples. I had some last
year but I have none this year.
no + noun can be the subject of a
sentence:
No work was done.
No letter(s) arrived.
none
as the subject is possible but not
very usual:
We expected letters, but none came.
none
+ of, however, is quite usual
as subject:
None of the tourists wanted to climb
the mountain.
C. some
or any used with singular,
countable nouns
some
here usually means 'an unspecified
or unknown':
Some idiot parked his car outside my
garage.
or other
can be added to emphasize that the
speaker isn't very interested:
He doesn't believe in conventional
medicine; he has some remedy or other of his own.
any can mean 'practically
every', 'no particular (one)':
Any book about riding will tell you
how to saddle a horse.
Any dictionary will give you the
meaning of these words.
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