Some and any are extremely useful and frequent words in English, but they are also the source of many learner errors. This post looks at how to use them correctly.

The first thing to remember is that we only use some and any directly before either a plural noun or an uncountable noun:

We bought some clothes.

Do you have any milk?

Do not use some or any with a singular countable noun:

Would you like some piece of cake?

Note also that we don’t use some to talk about things in general. For this, nothing is needed before the noun:

Katie loves animals. (she loves animals in general)

We saw some animals running away. (we saw specific animals)

So when do we use some and when do we use any?

In general, we use some in positive sentences and any in negative sentences:

There were some pictures on the wall.

There weren’t any pictures on the wall.

We also use any if we want to emphasize that it doesn’t matter which one of a group of things we are talking about. This use is particularly common in sentences with if:

Please choose any colour you want.

If you have any problems, call me.

For questions, the situation is slightly more complicated. We use any if we don’t have an idea about what the answer will be or if we don’t know whether or not something exists:

Do you have any students from Russia?

Is there any butter in the fridge?

We use some if we think the answer is likely to be positive, or if we know that something exists:

Would you like some chips?

Can you lend me some money?

Finally, when you use some or any before a noun phrase beginning with a word such as the, those or our (rather than directly before a noun), you need to add of:

Some of the people were crying.

Have you had any of this soup?

We also use of before a pronoun such as it, us or ours.

You need food? Here, have some of mine.

Marty made a cake but we didn’t eat any of it.

#Grammar

One in five North Korean children malnourished, says UN chief during rare visit

UN official touring country said there were also issues with access to clean water and lack of medical supplies

About a fifth of all North Korean children are affected by malnutrition, the most senior United Nations humanitarian aid official has said during a tour of the country, the first such visit since 2011.

Mark Lowcock, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, made the comments at the end of the first day of his tour of North Korea, which he has said is aimed at raising awareness of the dire conditions faced by ordinary people.

“One of the things we’ve seen is very clear evidence of humanitarian need here,” he said in a video posted to the UN website and his official Twitter account. “More than half the children in rural areas, including the places we’ve been, have no clean water, contaminated water sources.”

Lowcock met with Kim Yong-chol, North Korea’s official head of state, and health minister Jang Jun-sang, according the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Humanitarian aid is exempt from UN sanctions placed on North Korea as punishment for developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but officials have warned aid shipments are still delayed due to the trade restrictions.

#Reading
#Vocabulary

Six Steps to More Concise Writing

Concise writing uses no more words than are necessary to create meaning. Here are six ways to achieve conciseness in your writing.

🟠🟠🟠 Step 1

Avoid redundancy. Look at this list--the words in parentheses aren't necessary. They say the same thing as the main phrase.

ten p.m. (at night)
tall (in height)
our (final) conclusion
(the month of) June
square (in shape)
to combine (together)
to ask (a question)
a consensus (of opinion)

🟠🟠🟠 Step 2

Watch out for wordy phrases. Wordiness happens when you use more words than you need to say something. For example, "in view of the fact that" means simply, "because."

Wordy vs. Concise Writing

⭕️ based on the fact that
because
⭕️ despite the fact that
although
⭕️ in the event that
if
⭕️ at the present time
now
⭕️ until such a time as
until
⭕️ on a weekly basis
weekly
⭕️ it is often the case that
often
⭕️ have the ability to
can
⭕️ during the course of
during
⭕️ take into consideration
consider
⭕️ to be of the opinion
to think
⭕️ to make reference to
to refer to
⭕️ in the final analysis
finally

🟠🟠🟠 Step 3

Make your subject clear and defined.

Unclear: The practice of revision would improve our writing.

Clear: Revision would improve our writing.

Avoid empty subjects it and there (called expletives) when possible.

Empty: There is no way to become a better writer than to practice.

Defined: We can become better writers if we practice.

🟠🟠🟠 Step 4

Use strong verbs. Avoid using sentences that rely overly on some form of the word 'to be' in combination with nouns or prepositions.

to be + nouns: What we found was a solution to the problem.
Strong verb: We solved the problem.

🟠🟠🟠 Step 5

Avoid vague words. Words like "thing," "stuff," "material," "people," "get," or "did" should be replaced with precise nouns or verbs.

Vague: I needed to get some stuff at the store.

Clear: I needed to buy some groceries at the farmer's market.

🟠🟠🟠 Step 6

Remove unnecessary modifiers. Too many modifiers weaken the force of your writing; they bury your main ideas in a mountain of words that don't mean much. Look for modifiers like "many," "really," "quite," "in my opinion," and so on, and edit them out of your writing.

Unnecessary: In my opinion, that movie was really quite good. I'm very glad we saw it.

Concise: That movie was fantastic! I'm glad we saw it.

If the revision of that sentence sounds too simple, think of other ways to modify it that add information. Adding words like “really” or “quite” do not add information. However, you could say, “That movie was an interesting retelling of a familiar story,” for example.

In your notebook, and on the discussion boards, practice writing some powerful, concise sentences. And, of course, comment on your classmates' sentences.

#Writing

Whichever

You can drive whichever of the cars you want.(You can choose to drive any of the cars)

Whichever dress I wear tonight, I'm worried that my butt will look fat. What do you think?
(Person is worried that the person's butt looks fat in any of the selected dresses)

Whichever road you take to Rome, you will need to drive carefully.
(There are a number of roads to take, and it is necessary to drive carefully on any one that you take)

Whichever pizza you ordered for her, it must have had some very delicious ingredients.
(The pizza that was ordered from those available had some special ingredients)

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English Pronunciation Training | Improve Your Accent & Speak Clearly

*** DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PRONUNCIATION WORKSHEET *** https://learn.mmmenglish.com/pronunciation In this lesson, I'll show you how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to practice English pronunciation. If you learn and practice with the IPA, you…

Emphasising questions

We can use wh-words with -ever to ask very emphatic questions. In speaking, we stress -ever:

However will you manage to live on such a small income? (stronger than How will you manage …?)

Charlie, whatever are you doing? (stronger than What are you doing?)

Whenever are you going to stop complaining? You’re getting on everyone’s nerves!

Being vague: whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever
We can use whatever, whenever, wherever and whoever alone to refer in a non-specific way to people and things:

A: Shall I send you all the dates and times?

B: Yes, whatever. That would be useful. Thanks. (it doesn’t matter what you send)

A: What time shall I come?

B: Whenever, really. (no specific time/it doesn’t matter)
If you talk to the manager or whoever, you’ll be able to find out what’s happening. (talk to the manager or a similar, unspecified person).

Sometimes people use whatever in a sarcastic or disrespectful way, usually saying it in an exaggerated way, to show they are not interested (for example, with exaggerated intonation):

Parent: You’d better start saving money if you want to go to university!

Teenager: Whatever!

IELTS Writing toolbox:

1. A good monolingual dictionary

2. Oxford Collocations Dictionary

3. Ideas for Task 2 by Liz and Simon

4. Materials for extensive reading (magazines, Active Reading series ...)

5. Sample and model answers from IELTS Cambridge series or Cambridge Official Guide

6. Longman Academic Writing Series

7. A good grammar book (English Grammar in Use is recommended)

8. Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS

#IELTS
#Writing
#Toolbox

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