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 #2 (permalink) Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:37 am Any/something |
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Hi Daniela,
Like all grammar books this one uses that catchall word generally just in case!
To my mind the sentence If you want anything/If you want something are both acceptable but there is a difference. If you want anything suggests to me - it doesn't matter what it is.
If you want something suggests a particular thing.
I can't imagine how generally fits this so-called rule because the two different words have different meanings.
Alan
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| #3 (permalink) Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:52 am Anything/ something |
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Thank you, Alan!
The trouble is that students take these rules for granted, no matter the word generally.
The difference between “If you need anything.” and “If you need something.” is clear. The problem is that the rule puts some limits. The second example, though, remains quite out of the rule, doesn’t it? I myself would never say “If anything is a hundred years old, that’s pretty old.” But when the students learn the rule, they will certainly do the sentence this way. Do you think the same difference between anything (no matter what) and something (something particular) can refer to this very sentence. Can you possibly say “If anything is a hundred years old…” Sounds a bit odd to me.
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| #4 (permalink) Fri Feb 24, 2006 15:12 pm Anything/ something |
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| Daniela wrote: | | The second example, though, remains quite out of the rule, doesn’t it? I myself would never say “If anything is a hundred years old, that’s pretty old.” But when the students learn the rule, they will certainly do the sentence this way. Do you think the same difference between anything (no matter what) and something (something particular) can refer to this very sentence. Can you possibly say “If anything is a hundred years old…” Sounds a bit odd to me. |
In my mind, when you say, "If something is a hundred years old...," I picture people looking directly at one thing. I may not know what that thing is yet, but it's a thing and we are looking directly at it. When you say, "If anything is a hundred years old...," I picture people looking all around them to choose one or many things that may be 100 years old -- it doesn't matter what it is. In this hypothetical situation, in the conditional, the distinction is more one of nuance than of meaning.
I've just had to teach this distinction this week, so here are a couple things I told my students:
-- In negative sentences use "any".
-- In postive sentences and questions, both "some" and "any" are possible. BUT in the positive sentence, "any" means anything at all; it doesn't matter what. "I will buy some flowers." (I probably have some type of flowers in mind.) "I will buy any flowers." (It doesn't matter what kind of flowers I am offered; I will just take them. They could even be dead flowers.)
Then there's an anecdote: During the days of communism in Eastern Europe, the stores were often short of goods. Sometimes there would be no meat, sometimes no fruit, whatever. For this reason I found one misuse of "any" very funny when I'd visit Czechoslovakia. Instead of saying, "I'm going to the store to buy something for dinner," a lady I know would mistakenly say, "I'm going to the store to buy anything for dinner." I found this hilarious, because it sounded like she was saying, "I'm going to the store, and if there's anything edible still there, I will buy it. I don't care what it is." |
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Jamie (K)
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| #5 (permalink) Sun Feb 26, 2006 17:19 pm Conditional sentences |
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Thank you, Jamie (K). I like the anecdote  In fact, a situation like that was almost next to the reality, because the stores were really empty and people wished there was not something, but ANYTHING in there.
Daniela
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