Unit 1.2
No and Any
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Introduction
Countable and uncountable nouns take different quantitative determiners (quantifiers) which give information about the quantity of something.
We find quantifiers such as no and any with countable and uncountable nouns.
Form
We put no and any before both countable and uncountable nouns, but there are some differences between them.
No
We put no only in positive sentences.
Any
We put any in positive sentences (+) when the real meaning is negative (-).
We put any with negative sentences (-) and question sentences (?).
Example
- Once again, I see no chocolate cake left!
- There is no need to delete this email.
- I refuse to believe that any of you gave the wrong answer to the question.
- They do not want any person to enter this area.
- Do you have any weird habits?
Use
No and any give us hints about the quantity of something:
- we use no when we refer to a zero quantity. It is generally used to emphasize the complement of the sentence;
- we use any when we refer to an unspecified quantity.
Summary
We use no (in positive sentences) and any (with negative and interrogative sentences, and also in positive sentences when the meaning is negative) to give information about the quantity of something.
Both can be used with uncountable and countable nouns.
For example:
— “He didn’t leave any clues behind.” = Any emphasises the negative meaning in negative sentence.
— “This summer there are no tourists at the beach.” = No emphasises the negative meaning in positive sentence.
♦ “None of the turists are at the beach this summer.” = None is the pronoun form of no and is used as a subject or an object. Here, it works as the subject of the verb are. In contrast with no, it takes of before a noun.
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.
Exercises
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