Any

Hello Sextus, how are you?

'Do you have (any) dogs?' would be what you'd say after entering a pet shop, e.g. if you wanted to buy a dog, but couldn't see any in the window.

In ordinary situations, for some reason, one always says 'do you have a dog?', even if you know the person probably has half a dozen. (Some people naturally look as if they own half a dozen dogs.) This allo

Hello Sxtus and Mr P

One phrase I come across with for asking such a thing is: "Do you have more than one dog?". But why do you use a singular "dog" here? I think "more than one" should be two or some number greater than two. So logically the sentence must be "Do you have more than one dogs?" But you are using the singular "dog". It sounds funny to me.

paco

Hello Paco

Yes indeed; if you met a person with a dog, you could say, 'do you have more than one dog?'.

But I think rather than:

1. Do you have/ more than one/ dog?

the sentence =

2. Do you have/ more than/ one dog?

Or to put it another way, you're saying:

3. Do you have > 1 dog?

But an adjective 'more-than-one' w

Hi MrP

Thanks for the quick reply.

Do you have/ more than/ one dog?

I see. My analysis was wrong.

Huhh, English is really hard to understand.

paco

Thanks for the answers, though my original question was whether "Do you have dogs?" is equivalent to "Do you have any dogs?". And, from what you say, it seems that it is.

Cheers,

Sextus

Hello Sextus

I think 'do you have any more dogs' would be more usual if you did want to use the pliral. It sounds a little blunt without the 'any'!

See you
MrP

Thanks for the answer, MrP. I asked that question because one usually says "Do you have any brothers or sisters?". So I was wondering whether one can take "any" out.

Sextus

Ah yes, indeed!

Lectum et captum est.

Pedanticus