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1/11/2016 Is "any" singular or plural...example: If any boy ( or )if any boys? | Yahoo Answers

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Is "any" singular or plural...example: If anyboy ( or )if any boys?can "any" also refer to a group?

which is correct If any MAN,(or) if any MENserious, scholars onlyany questionorany questions

Update: @Pedro, thanks for your help, and researchand to the rest too

Update 2: @ kate B, I do not believe "are there any questions is correct. Although its frequently SPOKEN, andaccepted

Update 3: lets see what the British council has to say: The British Councilslanguage clinic with Dr Danny Hello and welcometo the British CouncilsEnglish Language Clinic. This week I have been asked a very specificquestion whether the word any is singular or plural. The question came withtwo examples and... show more

3 following

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Best Answer: Singular. Any man & any question.

"Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody,everyone, everything, many a, neither, no one, nobody, nothing, one, other,somebody, someone

* Plural: both, few, many, others, several

* Si ngular or Plural: all, any,none,some, such"

http://www.llrx.com/columns/grammar1.htm

Hope I helped!- Pedro (:)P

Source(s):http://www.llrx.com/columns/grammar1.htm

JONATHAN 8 years ago

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6 1

'Any' is effectively an adjective in this use, so it does not determine thenumber of the noun following it at all. The number of the noun is determined bywhat you want to say, naturally.

So, for example:

"Are there any men in our world more famous than George Bush and TonyBlair?"

AND"Is there any man in our world world more famous than George Bush?"

are equally valid sentences. The choice between singular/plural is simplydetermined by what it is you want to say.

P.S. Kate B is perfectly correct in saying "Are there any questions" is a validsentence in English. In fact, your objection that it is incorrect despite beingfrequently spoken and accepted is a logical fallacy, since the only criteria for asentence's validity Linguistically speaking is whether it is acceptable to thenative speakers of the language.

P.P.S. Unfortunately Pedro has mistaken the use of 'any' as an adjective(which it is in your examples) for its use as an indefinite pronoun (as in hissource material) - this latter use being considerably less common. Thedifference being that as an adjective it is applied before a noun, e.g. 'any men',

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1/11/2016 Is "any" singular or plural...example: If any boy ( or )if any boys? | Yahoo Answers

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Add y our answer

Comment

whereas as a pronoun it can be used as the subject/object of a verb, e.g. "Heis better than any before him!" (the example sucks because as I said it isreally not as widely used as the other available indefinite pronouns, particularly'anybody', 'anyone' or 'anything').

Hope this helps clear things up, but if anything remains unclear I'll be keepingan eye on the threat so just update your question.

Source(s):I am studying Linguistics at the University of Oxford.

Richard H 8 years ago

8 0

Comment

It can be used either way.

Are there any quest ions?If you have any question as to my qualifications...Is any man able to lift this weight?

Are any men avail able to work on S aturday?

Just make sure that the subject and verb agree.

Kate B 8 years ago

5 0

Comment

Any is either si ngular or plural.

Source(s):http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=any

Marknight 8 years ago

0 3

Comment

Neither--any is an indefinite pronoun.

Kilty 8 years ago

1 2

Is "any" singular or plural...example: If any boy ( or )if anyboys?

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