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Is this a proper sentence? "there should be any problem" I know we can say "there shouldnt be any problem" But can we say "there should be any problem" ?

herisson
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john
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  • Relevant:Can I say “I'm glad I was of any help”?, Does it sound weird to say “ I hope I can be of any use (help) to you” in a cover letter?, Explain something: anything – herisson Mar 12 '16 at 16:06
  • what? ı dont understand what u said? All Im asking is " There should be any problem" is this a proper sentence? – john Mar 12 '16 at 16:20
  • Questions of the form "is this a proper sentence" are not allowed on this site. You need to ask about some grammatical feature or word in the sentence. Since you haven't specified, I'm assuming you're mainly unsure about the use of the word any. So, I posted some links to other questions about the word any. If you are mainly concerned about another part of the sentence, please edit your question to specify this. – herisson Mar 12 '16 at 16:23
  • why is it an affirmative example? because it says "should"? – john Mar 12 '16 at 16:40
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    No: determinative "any" when used this way is restricted to non-affirmative contexts like There aren't any problems, Your example is an affirmative one, so "any" is not possible, and in this instance it yields an ungrammatical sentence. – BillJ Mar 12 '16 at 16:50
  • No, because it's a positive sentence, not a negative one. – BillJ Mar 12 '16 at 16:50
  • if it said "there shouldnt be any problem" it would have been a negative sentence tho right??? – john Mar 12 '16 at 17:18
  • Yes, it lacks a positive meaning; it's non-affirmative, so "any" works fine. – BillJ Mar 12 '16 at 17:22
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    The wording "there should be any problem" can meaningfully appear as part of a longer "if" phrase: "If there should be any problem with the WaxMaster, call our tech support hotline." Because your question presents the wording in all-lowercase letters, it's impossible to tell whether you're asking if the sentence "There should be any problem" makes sense (it doesn't) or if the phrase "there should be any problem" can appear in a grammatically correct and meaningful sentence (it can). – Sven Yargs Mar 12 '16 at 17:25
  • @Sven Yargs Your expanded if example is also non-affirmative, and hence "any" is grammatically okay. That's the crucial point about "any" when used this way. Substituting "some" (which has a positive orientation) for "any" gives the grammatically okay There should be some problems. – BillJ Mar 12 '16 at 17:36
  • As John Lawler points out in this question closed as General Reference, *Any is a Negative Polarity Item, and thus requires a negative context.* It's *still* General Reference for ELU (but would be fine on English Language Learners). – FumbleFingers Mar 12 '16 at 18:01
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    @FumbleFingers You've repeated what I said about polarity. I think the OP understands it now. – BillJ Mar 12 '16 at 18:06
  • @BillJ: I didn't read most of the comments in full - after the first few I just did a search for the specific word *polarity* (first here, which found nothing, then across the whole site) because I knew I'd easily find one of several places where John Lawler made that point. I was actually thinking in terms of closevoting as a duplicate, but when I realised the first one I'd found was already closed, I just voted the same way here. – FumbleFingers Mar 12 '16 at 18:23
  • Possible duplicate of Can I say "I'm glad I was of any help"? – Edwin Ashworth Mar 12 '16 at 20:35

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No, this does not make any sense at all. You should phrase it as, "there could be a problem". This encapsulates the ideas that there could be some problem, and that of an unknown variety (replacing the use of any).

Snoop
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    Yes, but you've omitted the crucial aspect of 'orientation'. "Any" in the sense we're discussing here is restricted to non-affirmative contexts. Which is why the OP's first example is ungrammatical, but his second one is okay. It's important to bring out that point. – BillJ Mar 12 '16 at 18:17