THE QUANTIFIERS

Some and Any

Some and any are used with countable and uncountable nouns, to describe an indefinite or incomplete quantity.

Some is used in positive statements:

Examples

• I had some rice for lunch
• He's got some books from the library.

It is also used in questions where we are sure about the answer:

Examples

• Did he give you some tea? (= I'm sure he did.)
• Is there some fruit juice in the fridge? (= I think there is)

Some is used in situations where the question is not a request for information, but a method of making a request, encouraging or giving an invitation:

Examples

• Could I have some books, please?
• Why don't you take some books home with you?
• Would you like some books?

Any is used in questions and with not in negative statements:

Examples

• Have you got any tea?
• He didn't give me any tea.
• I don't think we've got any coffee left.

SOME in positive sentences.

Examples

• I will have some news next week.
• She has some valuable books in her house.
• Philip wants some help with his exams.
• There is some butter in the fridge.
• We need some cheese if we want to make a fondue.

SOME in questions:

Examples

• Would you like some help?
• Will you have some more roast beef?

ANY in negative sentences

Examples

• She doesn't want any kitchen appliances for Christmas.
• They don't want any help moving to their new house.
• No, thank you. I don't want any more cake.
• There isn't any reason to complain.

ANY in interrogative sentences

Examples

• Do you have any friends in London?
• Have they got any children?
• Do you want any groceries from the shop?
• Are there any problems with your work?

THE QUANTIFIERS

Compound nouns made with SOME, ANY and NO

Some +	-thing	-body	-one	-where
Any +
No +

Compound nouns with some- and any- are used in the same way as some and any.

Positive statements:

Examples

• Someone is sleeping in my bed.
• He saw something in the garden.
• I left my glasses somewhere in the house.

Questions:

Examples

• Are you looking for someone? (= I'm sure you are)
• Have you lost something? (= I'm sure you have)
• Is there anything to eat? (real question)
• Did you go anywhere last night?

Negative statements:

Examples

• She didn't go anywhere last night.
• He doesn't know anybody here.

NOTICE that there is a difference in emphasis between nothing, nobody etc. and not ... anything,not ... anybody:

Examples

• I don't know anything about it. (= neutral, no emphasis)
• I know nothing about it (= more emphatic, maybe defensive)

SOMETHING, SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE

Examples

• I have something to tell you.
• There is something to drink in the fridge.
• He knows somebody in New York
• Susie has somebody staying with her.
• They want to go somewhere hot for their holidays.
• Keith is looking for somewhere to live.

ANYBODY, ANYTHING, ANYWHERE

Examples

• Is there anybody who speaks English here?
• Does anybody have the time?
• Is there anything to eat?
• Have you anything to say?
• He doesn't have anything to stay tonight.
• I wouldn't eat anything except at Maxim's.

NOBODY, NOTHING, NOWHERE

Examples

• There is nobody in the house at the moment
• When I arrived there was nobody to meet me.
• I have learnt nothing since I began the course.
• There is nothing to eat.
• There is nowhere as beautiful as Paris in the Spring.
• Homeless people have nowhere to go at night.

ANY can also be used in positive statements to mean 'no matter which', 'no matter who', 'no matter what':

Examples

• You can borrow any of my books.
• They can choose anything from the menu.
• You may invite anybody to dinner, I don't mind.

THE QUANTIFIERS

A few and few, a little and little

These expressions show the speaker's attitude towards the quantity he/she is referring to.

A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable nouns) describe the quantity in a positiveway:

These words can be used in the following ways:

• "I've got a few friends" (= maybe not many, but enough)
• "I've got a little money" (= I've got enough to live on)

Few and little describe the quantity in a negative way:

These words can be used in the following ways:

• Few people visited him in hospital (= he had almost no visitors)
• He had little money (= almost no money)

Numbers

The Quantifiers: talking about numbers in English

CARDINAL and ORDINAL NUMBERS

The cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives referring to quantity, and the ordinalnumbers (first, second, third, etc.) refer to distribution.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
1	one	first
2	two	second
3	three	third
4	four	fourth
5	five	fifth
6	six	sixth
7	seven	seventh
8	eight	eighth
9	nine	ninth
10	ten	tenth
11	eleven	eleventh
12	twelve	twelfth
13	thirteen	thirteenth
14	fourteen	fourteenth
15	fifteen	fifteenth
16	sixteen	sixteenth
17	seventeen	seventeenth
18	eighteen	eighteenth
19	nineteen	nineteenth
20	twenty	twentieth
21	twenty-one	twenty-first
22	twenty-two	twenty-second
23	twenty-three	twenty-third
24	twenty-four	twenty-fourth
25	twenty-five	twenty-fifth
26	twenty-six	twenty-sixth
27	twenty-seven	twenty-seventh
28	twenty-eight	twenty-eighth
29	twenty-nine	twenty-ninth
30	thirty	thirtieth
31	thirty-one	thirty-first
40	forty	fortieth
50	fifty	fiftieth
60	sixty	sixtieth
70	seventy	seventieth
80	eighty	eightieth
90	ninety	ninetieth
100	one hundred	hundredth
500	five hundred	five hundredth
1,000	one thousand	thousandth
100,000	one hundred thousand	hundred thousandth
1,000,000	one million	millionth

Examples

• There are twenty-five people in the room.
• He was the fourteenth person to win the award since 1934.
• Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.
• I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.
• He went to Israel for the third time this year.

Fractions and decimals

Said	Written	Said
half	0.5	point five
a quarter	0.25	point two five
three quarters	0.75	point seven five

Percentages

Written	Said
25%	twenty five percent
50%	fifty percent
75%	seventy five percent
100%	a/one hundred percent

Units

Written	Said
$1,200	one thousand two hundred dollars
£16,486	sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds
545kms	five hundred and forty-five kilometres
$25.35	twenty-five dollars thirty-five

Years

Written	Said
1988	Nineteen eighty-eight
1864	Eighteen sixty-four
1999	Nineteen ninety-nine

How to say '0'

nought	used in mathematical expressions and decimals:'nought times three equals nought' 0.3 = 'nought point three' (or 'point three') 0.03 = 'point nought three'
zero	used in scientific expressions, especially temperatures:20oC = minus twenty degrees ortwenty degrees below zero also used to mean 'the lowest point': 'The heavy rain reduced visibility to zero'
'o' (the letter)	used in telephone numbers:0171 390 0062 = 'o one seven one three nine o double o six two'
nil/nothing	used to express the score in games such as football: 2 - 0 = 'two nil' or 'two nothing'

THE QUANTIFIERS

Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

Adjectives and adjectival phrases that describe quantity are shown below. Some can only go withcountable nouns (friends, cups, people), and some can only go with uncountable nouns (sugar, tea, money, advice). The words in the middle column can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.

Only with uncountable nouns	With uncountable and countable nouns	Only with countable nouns
How much?	How much or How many?	How many?
a little	no/none	a few
a bit (of)	not any	a number (of)
-	some (any)	several
a great deal of	a lot of	a large number of
a large amount of	plenty of	a great number of
-	lots of	-
+ noun

Note: much and many are used in negative and question forms.

Examples

• How much money have you got?
• How many cigarettes have you smoked?
• There's not much sugar in the cupboard.
• There weren't many people at the concert.

They are also used with too, (not) so, and (not) as :There were too many people at the concert - we couldn't see the band.
It's a problem when there are so many people.
There's not so much work to do this week.

In positive statements, we use a lot of:

Examples

• I've got a lot of work this week.
• There were a lot of people at the concert.