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Cat desk Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

"Not a" vs "not any"

Hi there, do both not a and not any sound natural In the following context?
  • Parliament elections in india are near. Today an opinion poll was held that says Abc party will win 250 seats, Xyz party will win 100 seats and others will not win a seat/any seats.
As both mean others will win Zero seats so I think both forms are correct. Can someone explain?
  

Top answer

They are both OK. "Any seats" is better if only for the parallelism with the other "seats" in the sentence. Also, "a seat" is slightly pejorative, sounding a bit like "a single seat".

— Anonymous

  • They are both OK.
  • "Any seats" is better if only for the parallelism with the other "seats" in the sentence.
  • Also, "a seat" is slightly pejorative, sounding a bit like "a single seat".
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1 Answers
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They are both OK. "Any seats" is better if only for the parallelism with the other "seats" in the sentence. Also, "a seat" is slightly pejorative, sounding a bit like "a single seat".

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