Not + some: I didn't know you had some sisters
Should I use "any" after a negation or a negative clause, or is "some" possible as well? I was told the first one of my examples is not correct and that I should use "any", so I thought that if that is not ok, the others should not be ok either.
Examples:
1 - I didn't know you had some sisters. (I just found out you have some sisters)
2 - I really didn't know you kept some nuclear weapons under your bed, gee.
3 - The Indians didn't know there were some deers to hunt not far from there.
4 - I could hardly believe she had some money left. I thought she had spent it all.
5 - He didn't know I had some pets, so he thought I knew nothing about cats and dogs.
Comments?
1- I didn't know you had ANY sisters.
2- I really didn't know that you kept nuclear weapons under your bed.
3- The Indians didn't know that there were some deers to hunt not far from there.
4- I could hardly believe that she had ANY money left. I thought that she had spent it all.
5- He didn't know I had ANY pets, so he thought that I didn't know anything about cats or dogs.
:)
Thanks, but why isn't "any" needed in the third one? I can't figure out how grammar works in this case. When is it possible to use "some" instead of "any" in these kinds of negative sentences? It seems no one knows.
That website just deals with the basics, which I already know. The examples I gave are different. It's more a question of whether to use "some" or "any" in related or relative clauses, after a negation.
I didn't know you had any sisters.
I didn't know you really had some sisters.
I couldn't believe she still had some money for me.
I couldn't believe she still had any money for me.
The Indians didn't know there were some deers to hunt not far from there.
The Indians didn't know there were any deers to hunt not far from there. (???Not sure what this would mean though)
And so on. I usually feel there is a slight difference, but I don't feel that "some" must always be wrong in such cases. I really can't find any rules on this, which might mean there are none.
some is correct in all those sentences.
I don't think that "some" is exactly "wrong", at least not grammatically, but in many of the sentences it sound funny.
In the first sentence, it definitely should be "any". In the second, both work, with slightly different emphasis created. In the third, I think that "some" is better than "any", but it also works with neither (in fact, you could omit the word from the first one as well). There are other problems with the third sentence, though: "deer" is both the singular and plural, so you shouldn't say "deers", and the infinitive sounds off to me. Maybe "The Indians weren't aware of the deer not far away that they could have hunted". On the fourth, both are again correct, with them having slightly different meanings. On the fifth, "any" is better, but I think that it sounds better completely reworded; since it doesn't really makes sense unless he was actively making assumptions about whether you have pets, I would say "He thought I didn't have any pets..." Definitely not "He thought I didn't have some pets..."
How comfortable are you regarding your knowledge as to when to use some/any in questions? For instance, would you ask "Do you have any sisters?" or "Do you have some sisters?" Are you aware that it would be odd for a native speaker to respond with "Yes, I have some sisters"? (More likely responses would be "Yes", "Yes, two", or "Yes, I have sisters")