Any berry works!

Hello. It’s ok, relax. Take a deep breath, let the tension go out of your shoulders and jaw. You’re fine, and this will be easy, I promise!

Hi everyone! You are here, listening to English Airs, the podcast that will give you effortless accuracy, and this is Parya, an English teacher talking to you from Tokyo, today on an empty stomach! Later, I’m going for a meal with a friend so I’m quite hungry. I never go to a Japanese restaurant alone. You see, I don’t like some Japanese food, and I need an expert to tell me which items on the menu are the ones I will enjoy. But as most of you know, I love any Japanese garden. Even though they are designed, they look as if the trees and ponds just happened to be in such beautiful harmony.

Did you notice that I just used “some” in a negative sentence and “any” in a positive one? If your teacher told you we can’t do that when you were a beginner in English, that’s because they had to. Nobody will learn anything if you dump all the grammar on their head at once, and say “Now go and speak perfectly!” But, you have come a long way since then, and I believe you are ready for more, so come along!

To start with, I want to think of a category of things. For example, rock music. How do you feel about rock music? Are you a big fan? Or maybe you can’t stand that genre? Or, more likely, somewhere in between?

Let’s say you are a huge fan. You buy all their music, you listen to their songs, and you have all of the lyrics memorized. I can name rock musicians one by one and ask if you like them, but we will both get tired soon, won’t we? After the third or fourth question, you will probably say “Listen, I like any rock musician.” Do you also remember what any means from episode 2 of season 2? Yes! In this case, it means no matter who. So what you are really telling me is that you like all rock musicians. Well why didn’t you say so from the beginning?! Ah yes, you want to emphasize that no matter who I name, if they play rock, you like them. Fair enough.

So far, so good, right? but, what if you are not so absolute about it? What if, in this big category, there are people or songs that you don’t like? Can you say ” I don’t like any rock musician”? You can’t, can you? Because that means the whole category. You want to talk about just a part of it. So what do you say? That’s right: ” I don’t like some rock musicians.”

I’m sure that by now, you have worked out how we use “some” and “any”. Which one do you use when you are talking about a part of a whole? And which one is for the whole? If your answers were “some” and “any”, well done! I think my job here is finished! Just, let’s practice them together: In your head, imagine four boxes. Or if you are sitting down for this episode, draw four boxes on a piece of paper.

Box 1 is completely full: you like anything in this category. What category is that? Do you like any kind of cheese like me?
Box 2 is mostly full but has a small part that’s empty: You don’t like some of the things in this box. Is this box the vegetable box? I don’t like some vegetables, for example, okra.
Box 3 is mostly empty, but there is a part that you like. For me, this box is the seafood box: I like some seafood.
and Box 4 is completely empty. You don’t like anything in this group. What is this group for you? In my case, it’s tea. I don’t want to drink any type of tea.

You’ve got that? Good. Now I am going to give you a little time to say all of that together. Give it a go!

Well done! Next time, it will be even easier. Speaking of next time, let’s see how you can practice on your own. First, we need to make a list of at least 7 categories. Here are some examples: friends, soft drinks, outdoor sports, fresh juice, basically anything you can think of. Then set an alarm for a time during the day when you know you have a couple of minutes to think and speak out loud. Every time the alarm goes off, take a deep breath, choose a category, and talk about it. Say one or two sentences, and if you want to do a little more, add some sort of explanation. Like this:

“I will be happy to see any of my friends. Recently, I haven’t been able to spend time with some of them, and we haven’t been able to do any of the things we usually did.”

This example was about 20 seconds, so really, one or two minutes is plenty of time!

We are going to close the topic of any and some for now. They seem simple, but they cause so many misunderstandings, so make sure you get lots of practice with them. On the website, you can see some visuals that will help, the transcript, and the YouTube video is also there, so you can listen to the episode while reading the script. If you remember to turn the CC on! If you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you will also get alerts when I upload extra, explanatory videos. They are on the way!

As always, I will be happy to hear your ideas, comments, or questions. I welcome anything! And please keep introducing this podcast to anyone who might need it and use it. You have been helping me reach others, and I thank you for that.

Parya out!