How different between "some" and "any"?

Daniela   Friday, October 15, 2004, 06:12 GMT
How differnt between "do you have some questions?" and "do you have any questions?"
Is it possible to use "do you have some questions?"
Jim   Friday, October 15, 2004, 06:48 GMT
Your best bet would be to go for

"Do you have any questions?"

but you could easily get away with

"Do you have some questions?"

the second one might sound a little odd but we'd all know what you're asking.
Easterner   Sunday, October 17, 2004, 17:03 GMT
Maybe I'm a semantics freak, seeking difference in meaning where there isn't any, but I see a slight difference between using "any" and "some" in questions. When you ask "Do you have any questions?", this is more of a general inquiry, and may be asked e.g. at the end of a lecture when the speaker asks for feedback from the audience. There may even be a suggestion behind this that there won't be any, and the speaker only asks for the sake of politeness, but at any rate the attitude is at best neutral. "Do you have some questions?" is (taking the situation above) more of a reaction to a timid attempt from a listener to be noticed, therefore more of an encouragement or a positive assumption. Finally, using "some" is quite natural in polite requests like "Would you like some tea?". Here also, I think the assumption is that the answer will be positive.
Jim   Sunday, October 17, 2004, 23:41 GMT
Is there some difference in meaning? Is there any difference in meaning? I think you've got a point there, Easterner. Come to think of it, if the kids had looks on their faces that indicated that they had some questions, "Do you have some questions?" would sound quite natural, not odd at all.