Do you have any questions about when to use
'some' and 'any'?
I have some helpful tips for you today.
Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
Now these two words,
they're very common English words that are often
confused and misused by English learners.
And although they seem to have very similar meanings,
they're not often interchangeable
so it's important to know which word to use
and when to use it.
In this video I'm going to clear up some of that
confusion so that you can avoid making those
mistakes in the future.
We'll go through the meaning of 'some' and 'any'
the general uses and some of the exceptions
to the rules so make sure you keep paying attention
throughout the video.
There's going to be a quiz at the end.
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The first thing you need to know is that we use
'some' and 'any' before plural
and uncountable nouns.
And we do it to talk about a certain number or amount
of something when we don't actually know exactly
how much or how many of that thing we want.
So I need to buy some bread.
I'm saying that I need to buy an amount of bread
but I'm not being specific, I'm not saying exactly
what number or amount I need.
Now again we want to know if there's pasta left,
but I don't really care about the specific amount,
I just want to know if there is an amount.
Now because 'some' and 'any' are both used in quite
similar situations, it's often difficult to know
which one you should use, right?
So we're going to go over the general grammar rules
to help you decide which one to use.
But definitely stick around until the end of this lesson,
there are some exceptions to these rules
that you need to know.
And I'll get to those in a little bit but later, later, later on,
I've also got a quiz that's going to help you to test
what you've learned in this lesson.
So as a general rule, we use 'some' with positive
or affirmative sentences.
Now we can use 'any' with negative sentences
and questions, okay?
So that's pretty simple right?
There are some clear rules there
but like many things in English, there are several
exceptions to this rule as well.
Now this is where the fun starts.
Alright take a look at this question.
We use 'some' and it's a question.
Now this is an exception.
We use 'some' in questions when you're
pretty sure that the answer will be yes.
I'm asking you to pick up coffee because I know
there's a high probability or a strong chance
that you'll say yes, that you will buy the coffee.
Now often questions that we are expecting the answer
to be yes are offers or requests okay?
Alright I'm being polite.
I'm asking you but I know that you probably want
milk in your coffee.
Now if I said
I'm asking because I actually don't really know
if you have milk in your coffee or not.
Now I already know that you need money
and I'm expecting you to say yes
but if I said:
I'm asking
because honestly I don't really know the answer.
Now this isn't the only exception
okay? We have a couple more important ones
to get through but that one
is an important one to remember.
Alright so that was a very subtle difference.
Now let's move on to the second exception.
Before I said that 'any' is used in
negative sentences and not positive ones, right?
Do you remember? But you can use 'any' in an
affirmative sentence or a positive sentence
if the sentence has a negative feeling.
Now positive sentences that include negative feelings
usually have words like:
in them.
Now this sentence is a positive structure
but we're talking about the lack of money
which is a negative feeling or a negative idea.
That's what we're talking about.
Now there's one last situation where 'any' can be used
in an affirmative sentence.
Now this is a special exception because it's also the
only time that you might see 'any' or 'some'
being used with a singular countable noun.
That's a general rule that we're breaking here.
We can use 'any' in an affirmative sentence
and commonly with a singular countable noun
as a way to say it doesn't matter which one, alright?
It doesn't matter which road you take, it's not important.
You can take any of them.
It's not important which shirt you take,
you can have whichever one you want.
It doesn't matter which one.
Now that we've been through some examples,
you really shouldn't have any problem
with this little quiz now, okay?
Let's do the first one together.
All you need to do is choose the correct word,
'any' or 'some'.
Could be either but let's go with 'any'
because 'any' is used in a question, especially
one that you don't know the answer to and usually
you're asking because you don't know.
Now if I was asking someone who I thought had kids,
then I'd probably use a question tag and I'd say:
Next one.
Now let's imagine that the person we're asking is a huge
fan of dessert and always wants more.
Alright so we probably can assume that the answer
will be yes and it's an offer.
So 'some' is the correct answer here.
Now this is a singular countable noun here, it's a clue.
So it would have to be 'any'.
Any or some?
You got it. It's 'any', right?
Because 'any' is used in negative sentences.
Now for the last one let's go with:
Now even though this is an affirmative sentence,
we're using 'hardly' which gives us a negative
feeling, right? So we would use 'any'.
So how did you go? Did you get any of them wrong?
Tell me in the comments below if you did
and let me know if you've got any questions about them.
Try to write some example sentences of your own
so that I can come down and check them out.
The English language is full of confusing word pairs
just like these ones
that are very similar in meaning
but they're not exactly the same.
And I've got a whole playlist of those lessons right here
so if you want to keep going with these
types of lessons, you can go check that one out.
And if you've got a specific pair of words that are
particularly confusing for you, then let me know
in the comments below.
I'll try and make a lesson about it really soon.
But for now, let's go check out this lesson together.