Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[emilywang]

Dear teachers,

I know "any" is used in questions or negative sentences.

However, is the sentence below correct?

Max wants to know whether there is "any" candy in the box or not .


Thanks for your reply.

Br,
Emily

[alan.es]

If you think about it, the original question or thought was, "Is there any candy in the box?". So the use of 'any' is correct.

This question is now changed into a reported or indirect question -

Max wants to know if/whether there is any candy in the box or not.

We don't have to change 'some' or 'any' when making the question indirect/reported.