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Sami Kumar Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Any one of vs Any of

Hi,

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, who happens to be a native speaker of English. We were talking about the best footballers who don't play in England, and he said:

"If any of them goes to the English league, he will end up winning the league"

I understand that "any of them" can be interpreted as:

1)If any of them go to the English league, they will end up winning it. (If two or more of them go the league)

2)If any one of them goes to the English league, he will end up winning it. (this is what he meant)

But my question is: Is it formal to use a singular verb after "any of"?

If so, the interrogative form seems very confusing to me, specially when we use the auxiliary verbs "does" and "do".

For example:

1) Do any of you have jobs? (Implies that many of them have jobs)
2) Doesn't any of you have jobs? (sounds wrong since we can't use "doesn't" to refer to many people) (Implies that many of them have jobs) .

3) Does any one of you have a job? (Implies that only one person has a job)
4) Doesn't any of you have a job? (sounds wrong, but we can use "any of" to refer to a single individual) (Implies that only one person has a job)

Another example:

1)Has any one of you seen her?
2)Has any of you seen her?
3)Have any of you seen her?

Also, Is it idiomatic to use "any one of" to talk about inanimate objects and Ideas? For instance:

I suggested a couple of ideas the other night, and I am wondering whether any one of them made any sense to you.

Thanks for your time Emotion: smile.
  

Top answer

" is ungrammatical. " However, in informal speech you sometimes here things like this. We're talking about one top player, who is not playing in E, going to the EL.

  • " is ungrammatical.
  • " However, in informal speech you sometimes here things like this.
  • We're talking about one top player, who is not playing in E, going to the EL.
  • But by implication this could mean more than one.
  • If one player can do it, then more than one could also do it.
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2 Answers
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"If any of them goes to the EL, he will end up winning the league." is ungrammatical. It should be "If any one of them goes..." However, in informal speech you sometimes here things like this. We're talking about one top player, who is not playing in E, going to the EL. But by implication this could mean more than one. If one player can do it, then more than one could also do it.

"If
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Thank you so much for your time. This is just what I needed Emotion: smile

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