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Viceidol Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Do you know any good doctor?

My grammar book says "Do you know any good doctor?" is wrong, and "Do you know a good doctor?" is correct. Is that really true? And how about "Do you know any good doctors?" Is this OK?

My grammar book also says "She hasn't got any job." is wrong, and "She hasn't got a job." is correct. Is that really true? Then how about "She hasn't got any jobs." Is this OK?

Please help me with this and I'd appreciate it.
  

Top answer

Hi, I would word things the same as your grammar book does. It might be easier to generally think of using "a" with a singular noun (doctor, job) and "any" with a plural noun (doctors, jobs).

— Reveuse

  • Hi, I would word things the same as your grammar book does.
  • It might be easier to generally think of using "a" with a singular noun (doctor, job) and "any" with a plural noun (doctors, jobs).
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10 Answers
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Hi,

I would word things the same as your grammar book does. It might be easier to generally think of using "a" with a singular noun (doctor, job) and "any" with a plural noun (doctors, jobs).
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But some people on the forum said we can use either singular or plural nouns after "any". Please look at

also here

According to what they said, "Do you know any good doctor?" and "Do you know
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Those are both good discussion threads, Viceidol.

As they suggest, Do you know any good doctor/doctors are both grammatically OK. For the general question, most native speakers would use the plural, soliciting information about any doctors that could help-- the more the better! On the other hand, if the speaker is thinking more of a single doctor (perhaps a specialist) or thinks
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Thank you very much for your explanation!
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You are looking for a doctor -- a good doctor:

Do you know a good doctor?
Do you know any good doctors?
______

You are complaining that there are no good doctors. Note the contrast with bad.

-- My doctor isn't very good.
-- My doctor isn't very good either.
-- I think they're all bad.
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CalifJimThe example with job is easier. It's expected that a person has a job or not. It's less expected that a person has more than one job.

She's got a job. She hasn't got a job.
She hasn't got any jobs is strange because we don't expect someone to have more than one job at a time.

Thank you for your detailed explanation, Cal
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do you think both "She hasn't got any job." and "She hasn't got any jobs" are inapproreate?
"Inappropriate for what?" is the question. For a very neutral statement that the woman is unemployed, we'd say She hasn't got a job. I have already illustrated a situation where She hasn't
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People who do freelance work could use "jobs" in the plural like that. Someone like a house painter or... say, a freelance writer.

Lori's a bit short of cash right now. She doesn't have any jobs lined up right now.
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People who do freelance work could use "jobs" in the plural like that.
Ah, yes. Quite true, She doesn't have any jobs makes sense if you change from definition "3c: a regular remunerative position" (which I was talking about)
For a very neutral statement that the woman is unemployed, ...
to definition "1a: a piece of work; espec
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CalifJim
But I can't think how She doesn't have any jobs could be used to mean She doesn't have any regular remunerative positions. It strikes me as very unusual.

CJ

I totally agree with you.
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