The Quantifiers, “Some” vs “Any”
(Grammar Lesson)
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]T[/su_dropcap]he use of these Quantifiers – “Some” vs “Any” are used with both Countable and Un-Countable Nouns, and are often used in very similar sentences.
Definitions & Usage
“Some”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]A[/su_dropcap]s mentioned, the word, “Some” is a Quantifier, and can be used with both Countable and Un-Countable Nouns. in order to specify some amount or type of that thing that it is in reference to.
With Countable Nouns, it is used to refer to:
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- An un-specified number of whatever it is referring to – or to an un-specified type.
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With Un-Countable Nouns, it is used to refer to:
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- An un-specified amount of the mass of that Un-Countable Noun
- An un-specified type of that same Un-Countable Noun.
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“I have some free-time this weekend. If you want, we can go out and get some beers – or we could just stay at home and get drunk while we watch some really badly over-dubbed kick-ass 70’s Kung Fu Movie. Do any of those ideas sound good to you?”
In the example sentence above…
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- The “Some” which is referring to the Un-Countable Noun, “Free-Time” is referring to an un-specific amount.
- The “Some” which is referring to the Countable Noun, “Beers” is referring to an un-specific number.
- The “Some” which is referring to the Countable Noun “Movie” (or – more-specifically – the Noun-Phrase, “really badly over-dubbed kick-ass 70’s Kung-Fu Movie”) is referring to an un-specified one…
- The word, “Any” – which referring to the Countable Noun, “ideas” is referring to All of them… (Read on for clarification of that)
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“Any”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]T[/su_dropcap]he word, “Any” is also a Quantifier, and is used in a very similar way. It also can be used with both Countable and Un-Countable Nouns, in order to refer to an un-specified and can refer to:
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- One (of a Countable Noun)
- Some (of an Un-Countable Noun)
- Every (referring to all of a Countable Noun)
- All (of an Un-Countable Noun)
- None (of either a Countable or Un-Countable Noun – when used in a negative Sentence, Clause or Question)
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(All & None are essentially used in the same way. It is merely a matter of either a positive or negative amount of the thing in-reference.)
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]A[/su_dropcap]ll of these possibilities above are also, referring to an un-specific amount or un-specified “individual” or “type” of that Noun (Countable or Un-Countable).
“Well… first of all, I’m not sure if I have any money to go out. But, I have plenty of Kung-Fu movies in my library which I haven’t watched recently. Any movie from before “Enter The Dragon” would be good. I can’t stand any of the stuff that came out after that.”
“As far as beer, anything you want to drink is fine by me, as long as it’s not Pilsner. After almost ten years of living in Eastern Europe, I can’t drink that shit anymore.”
In those example sentences…
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- The “Any” which is referring to the Un-Countable-Noun, “Money” is referring to some or any of it (in an negative sense).
- The “Any” which is referring to the Countable-Noun, “Movie” can be referring to an un-specified one or every one of them from that category.
- The “Any” which is referring to the Un-Countable-Noun, “Stuff” – which is actually in-reference to the Countable-Noun, “Movie” is referring to all of them.
- The word, “Anything” is merely a compound–word, made from the word, “Any” and the non-specific Countable-Noun, “Thing” and is referring to all of a specific group (made by the exclusion of the particular type within that group).
- The word, “Anymore” is merely a compound-word, made from the word, “Any” and the Adjective, “More” – which is, here, used in reference to the Un-Countable Noun “Time”. Though the word, “Time” is not stated, it is implied by the phrase in a negative way and therefore falls under the classification of all of that thing (time).
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“Yeah… Now, That’s More Like It!!!”
😉
Have An Excellent Day!
(And Pass Me One Of Those Delicious Looking IPAs!!!)
😉
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