Professional Documents
Culture Documents
'Some', 'Any', and 'No Article'
'Some', 'Any', and 'No Article'
We can use some, any or 'no article' before plural or uncountable nouns. They all mean
something similar to a/an before a singular noun. For example:
Often, there isn't a big difference in meaning between 'no article' and some. However, we
use some when we are talking about a limited number or amount (but we don't know or we
don't want to say the exact quantity).
Some means 'a certain number of' or 'a certain amount of'. We don't use some if we are talking
about something in general or thinking about it as a category. When we use some, we don't
say the exact quantity, but we could probably find it out if we needed to. For example:
Can you buy some milk? [We don't know exactly how much, but I'm talking about a
certain amount of milk – I don't want all the milk in the world.]
On the other hand, we use 'no article' when we aren't thinking about the quantity. It's used to
talk about the noun as a category, rather than a certain amount of it:
We need Ø milk to make pancakes. [I'm thinking about milk as a category. I'm not
thinking about a certain amount of milk.]
More examples:
We need to buy Ø coffee [I'm talking about coffee as a category, not thinking about
the amount].
Would you like some coffee? [I mean a certain amount of coffee, probably a cup.]
I ate some bread [I mean a certain amount of bread].
I ate Ø bread [not pasta or rice].
1: Any can be used in a positive sentence to mean 'it's not important which one'. When we
use any in this way, it's most often used with singular countable nouns:
2: Any can also be used in positive sentences that have a negative feeling, for example if they
include never, hardly, without:
She never eats any fruit.
We hardly watch any television.
Julia left the house without any money.
3: Some can be used in questions when we expect that the answer will be 'yes'. This is very
common in offers and requests:
Do you have any letters for me? [This is a real question. I don't know if you have any
letters or not.]
Do you have some letters for me? [I think you do, so I'm expecting that you will say
'yes'.]