Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Here is an exercise I have done on the subject, would you please correct it?

Complete these sentences with some and any.

1) There is seldom any world news in the �The Daily Star�.

2) Joan�s mother scarcely ever let her have any friends round.
(What is the meaning of "round" here?)

3) There can hardly be any doubt that he is the best tennis player in the world.

4) If you have any / some (?) old books that you don�t want, could you bring them into school?

5) Someof the money collected will go to helping children with heart disease.

6) Any of his paintings, even the smallest, would today sell for thousands of pounds.

Best regards,
Hela

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Here is another exercise about the same topic.

Complete these sentences with some and any + one / body / where �

1) While you are making dinner, I�ll get on with something else.

2) He didn�t want anyone to do with the arrangements for the party.

3) Diane knew she was somewhere in the park, but not exactly where.

4) He thought the bad weather was something to do with all the satellites in space.

5) Hardly anyone turned up to the meeting.

6) She was a teacher from somewhere near Frankfurt.

7) After the accident Paul didn�t go anywhere near a horse for two years.

I�ve borrowed John�s binoculars. If anything happens to them, he�ll be really angry.
(is �something� possible here?)


Thank you for your help.
Hela

[bud]

Hi Hela,

Except where noted, you are correct.

Exercise 1:

2. "Round" should be "around." Sometimes 'round (with the apostrophe) is used as a contraction for around. Either way, "round" without the apostrophe is incorrect.

4. "Some" is ok, but "any" is more likley in this sentence.

Exercise 2:

2. Anything - If you delete "with" from the sentence, then "anyone" would work.

4. "Something" is correct, but I would prefer "had" over "was." (I know it is not your wording.)

In your extra sentence - Yes, "something" would work ok. To me, 'anything" is the more natural phrasing, though.

Good work, Hela.

[BMO]

Exercise 2:

5) Hardly anyone turned up to the meeting.

should this is ... turned up for the meeting?

[bud]

Very good, BMO! I didn't notice it the first time, but "for" is the usual preposition to use.

[BMO]

google search:

turned up for the event ---644
turned up to the event ----366

i am wondering.

[bud]

'To' is also correct, but 'for' is more usual - at least in American English when we talk about meetings. When you switch 'meeting' to something else, I am not sure that 'for' would always be more usual. English prepositions sometimes are preposterous!

Also, BMO, be careful of concluding too much from a websearch. Do you look at some of the links to see the source and context? There are loads of English errors out there in webspace. For example, I just typed in "I goes" and got 21,400 results! Yes, 21,400!


As usual, you are very thorough in your study. Good job!

[BMO]

thanks. google can be misleading.