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 #2 (permalink) Wed Feb 13, 2008 13:49 pm all vs. anything vs. everything |
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Hi Molly,
"anything" usually occurs in negative sentences, questions or as an indefinite pronoun.
e.g: Do you know anything about cars?
I don't know anything about cars.
That's what I think :) |
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Juliana Melo
I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 10 Jan 2008
Posts: 13
Location: Florianópolis, Brazil
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| #3 (permalink) Wed Feb 13, 2008 19:49 pm all vs. anything vs. everything |
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| Juliana Melo wrote: |
Hi Molly,
"anything" usually occurs in negative sentences, questions or as an indefinite pronoun.
e.g: Do you know anything about cars?
I don't know anything about cars.
That's what I think :) |
I know the classroom "rule", but why, specifically, can we not use "anything", there? |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| #4 (permalink) Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:01 am all vs. anything vs. everything |
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Perhaps noone will give you a satisfying reason why. Learning language is more about abiding by rules than logic.
Just change something in your native language so it will sound weird, and try to explain why you can't say that. In most cases you will run up against a brick wall :) |
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Lost_Soul
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Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 1861
Location: South Park, Colorado, USA
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| #5 (permalink) Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:38 am all vs. anything vs. everything |
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Hi Molly,
On its own in your sentence 'anything' simply has no meaning because you don't what the speaker/writer does know.
Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan
Co-founder
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Posts: 13891
Location: UK
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| #6 (permalink) Sun Feb 17, 2008 13:18 pm all vs. anything vs. everything |
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| Alan wrote: |
Hi Molly,
On its own in your sentence 'anything' simply has no meaning because you don't what the speaker/writer does know.
Alan |
I see. So "any" does not always have the meaning "all" or "none", right? |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| #7 (permalink) Sun Feb 17, 2008 13:25 pm all vs. anything vs. everything |
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| Quote: |
| Perhaps noone will give you a satisfying reason why. Learning language is more about abiding by rules than logic. |
I disagree, but that's another conversation.
The simplified rule, if it is a rule, of "use some in positives and any in questions and negatives" cannot account for the second example from each pair below:
I like some pop music.
I like any pop music.
I don't like any pop music.
I don't like some pop music.
All those examples are grammatical, so where does that leave the above "rule"?
If you know of a rule that covers all uses of some and any, please post it. |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| Phrase "get on best with" | usage of "it" and "that" |
