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What are the circumstances in which any can be used with a singular and with a plural?

  • Do you have any car?
  • Do you have any cars?

For example, commenters have indicated both

You cannot use any with a countable singular. You can use it with a plural, or with a mass noun — “do you have any milk,” for example.’

"You don't have a Ford. You don't have a VW. You don't have a Chrysler. Do you have any car?" is perfectly reasonable.

Clearly the rules are quite complex.

Andrew Leach
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user371339
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  • You cannot use "any" with a countable singular. You can use it with a plural, or with a mass noun - "do you have any milk", for example. – WS2 Feb 15 '20 at 09:28
  • @WS2 "You don't have a Ford. You don't have a VW. You don't have a Chrysler. Do you have any car?" is perfectly reasonable. – Andrew Leach Feb 15 '20 at 09:38
  • @AndrewLeach Good point. I perhaps should have said "You cannot normally use "any" with a singular" - but there are clearly instances where you can. One could for example say "Do you have any writing implement, with which to sign this?". I guess the rules are complex. – WS2 Feb 15 '20 at 09:44
  • Complex rules are precisely the point of the question :-) – Andrew Leach Feb 15 '20 at 09:46
  • @AndrewLeach We see such a wide variety of skill levels in OPs, that one can never be quite sure which point the questioner is at. I now think this one deserves an up-vote. – WS2 Feb 15 '20 at 09:48
  • This question really needs the OP's research detailed so we can answer at the right level. On the surface it sounds like a learner's very basic question, but for an advanced user this is a good question. – CJ Dennis Feb 15 '20 at 09:57
  • @CJDennis Well, I suppose I could have looked it up in Fowler/Burchfield when I edited the question, but that would probably answer it anyway. [Indeed -- having just looked it up, any has nearly two pages.] – Andrew Leach Feb 15 '20 at 10:00
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    @CJDennis Thanks to Andrew's editing it is now a sophisticated question. However the original I suspect was more suited to ELL. – WS2 Feb 15 '20 at 10:02
  • @AndrewLeach Clearly "any" is available with a singular in instances where there are a number of possibilities - e.g. He didn't have any book to read/any house to live in/any car to get him to work etc. – WS2 Feb 15 '20 at 10:06
  • @WS2 I just looked at the other questions they've asked recently. They're definitely an [ell.se] level user. – CJ Dennis Feb 15 '20 at 10:06
  • @CJDennis The user might be. We don't judge users. We judge questions. In my view, this question belongs here. – Andrew Leach Feb 15 '20 at 10:11
  • @AndrewLeach My concern is that any sufficiently detailed answer might be too high levelled for the OP at this point in time. I'm note trying to judge the user, just get their question to the best place where it will help them. – CJ Dennis Feb 15 '20 at 10:14
  • Well, they will have seen your comment with details of a site where the original question might be better placed. This question is OK here, and it's perfectly fine to edit questions to make them on-topic on the site on which they're posted. – Andrew Leach Feb 15 '20 at 10:16
  • Duplicate question. See more at: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/112996/any-followed-by-singular-or-plural-countable-nouns – jazelly Feb 15 '20 at 12:17
  • My take is that "You don't have any Ford" is (extremely) rarified rather than ungrammatical, except in licensing contexts ("I've got 70 cars in my collection, all in full working order. You probably know that my favourite car models are all Fords – the T-Bird, the Mustang, the Eifel, the GT, but actually they're under-represented in the collection" ... -"You don't have any Ford!" This emphatic usage may be further emphasised by the addition of 'at all' after the singular-form noun. (The plural-form is also fine). – Edwin Ashworth Feb 15 '20 at 14:34

1 Answers1

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Any is not normally used with singular nouns. (It is regularly used with plurals - "do you have any biscuits?", and with mass nouns - "we have not had any rain for six weeks").

However, one situation where it is used with a singular noun, is where the single item could be any one of several different types or things - e.g. "I didn't have any writing implement with which to make notes" or "do you know any person who could help".

In many of these cases the simple indefinite article would also serve. However the use of "any" is a means of emphasising the sense of the widest possible consideration - "Five teachers are ill, is there any person who can supervise the juniors?"

WS2
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  • Perhaps a test for this usage is can 'at all' be added as an amplifier-intensifier?. "Five teachers are ill, is there any person at all who can supervise the juniors?" This also works with non-count usages "Is there any milk at all in the store?", so a numeral test disambiguates ("Yes, here are two persons" (Eton) / *"Yes, here are three milks"). – Edwin Ashworth Feb 15 '20 at 14:23