Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

river1974 · Joined: 20 May 2003 Posts: 525 Location: Taiwan

Dear teachers:

(a)If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
(b)If you have any question, please feel free to contact us.

I am used to employ the plural of "question", i.e. sentence (a), rather than the singular. However, some of my foreign agents use sentence (b). Maybe both are grammatical, but I wonder which one is more natural. Thanks a lot.

asterix · Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 1654

Any means, one of several, ...any questions.. is correct.

river1974 · Joined: 20 May 2003 Posts: 525 Location: Taiwan

Thank you, asterix.

missdaredevil · Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Posts: 1670 Location: Ask me

river1974 · Joined: 20 May 2003 Posts: 525 Location: Taiwan

I think in this case, "any" is used as an adjective and "question" is a noun which could both be countable and uncountable. If we consider "question" as a countable noun, then adding -s to it is necessary. Whereas we don't have to add -s to "question" if considering it as an uncountable noun. I guess the meaning is about the same whether "question" is considered to be countable or uncountable.