5 Use of No/Any

Countable and Uncountable Nouns take different Quantitative Determiners “Quantifiers” which gives information about the quantity of something.

Quantifiers such as No and Any can be used both with Countable and Uncountable nouns.

No and Any are used both with Countable and Uncountable Nouns. There are some differences between No and Any:

• No only in positive sentences (+);
• Any in positive sentences (+) when the real meaning is negative (-);
• Any with negative sentences (-) and question sentences (?).

• Once again, I want no fruit salad!
• He refuses to believe that any kind of immortal can defeat the death.
• They do not want any person to disturb them for a long period.
• Do you have any weird habits?

No and Any give us hints about the quantity of something. There are differences between them in terms of usage in a sentence.

No and Any give emphasis to the sentence. Both No and Any can be used with uncountable and countable nouns. We should remember that No has a negative meaning therefore it should be used in positive sentences.

There are some differences between No and Any:

• No is only used in positive sentences because it is negative in nature;
• Any is used with negative and interrogative sentences, and also in positive sentences when the meaning is negative.

For example:
— “This summer season there are no tourists.” = No emphasises the negativity of the sentence. Tourists don’t come to this area this summer.
— “He didn’t leave any clues behind.” = Any emphasis the negativity of the sentence. The person cleaned everything and no one can find clues.

Let’s revise this content within the [Form] section. Take a look at the [Example] section that shows its use within a context.