MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH

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  SmartMemo
ANY and NO in negative sentences
Focus Grammar
Description Let's practise making negatives with ANY or with NO. Do this activity entering through the ANY option, and then do it again entering through the NO option, so you can practise both ways.
Instructions 1- Look at the sentences with ANY and write the equivalent with NO. 2- Move your mouse over the black button to check your answer. 3- If you were right, click on the green button, if wrong, click on the red.
 
Item Match Comments
We don't have any children We have no children
Wait, you're not going anywhere without me Wait, you're going nowhere without me In this sentence we use WITHOUT, a negative word, but it doesn't affect the ANYWHERE/NOWHERE word. Compare:

- I have to live without any money (without - any)
- I have to live without no money (without - no = double negative)

But in this sentence:

- You're not going anywhere (not - any)
- You're going nowhere (no)

"Without me" is something we add later, but it's not part of the "go somewhere" part of the sentence. WITHOUT is affecting ME, not the verb GO.
There weren't any people in the park There were no people in the park
I didn't drink any beer I drank no beer
You never buy me anything You always buy me nothing
He doesn't eat any vegetables He eats no vegetables
You can rarely find any nice tomatoes in this grocery shop You can usually find no nice tomatoes in this grocery shop
We don't need any sugar, we've got plenty. We need no sugar, we've got plenty.
There aren't any tigers in Africa There are no tigers in Africa
I didn't buy any bananas I bought no bananas
He hasn't got any friends here He's got no friends here
I didn't take any photos I took no photos
I won't tell you anything I will tell you nothing
She hardly knows anything about life She almost knows nothing about life
A salad without any vegetables? That's impossible A salad with no vegetables? That's impossible
You can't take any books from the library on Sundays You can take no books from the library on Sundays
I can't give you any shoes, I only have one pair here I can give you no shoes, I only have one pair here
I didn't see anybody inside the house I saw nobody inside the house
Tell me the truth, I don't need any more excuses. Tell me the truth, I need no more excuses.
Don't give me any more work, I'm too tired. Give me no more work, I'm too tired.
Total number of items: 20
This is an activity from Multimedia-English www.multimedia-english.com
 

ANY in negatives You can use NO instead of  NOT ANY to emphasize the negative idea.

- I don't need any money = I need no money
- There aren't any people here = There are no people here

careful:

- I don't have no friends here

This is not possible because it is a double negative: NOT + NO, and double negatives are not possible in standard English.

Notice that we usually make a negative sentence with NOT, but you can also use some other negative adverbs (never, without, rarely...), so the rule is the same, with negative adverbs we use ANY and we use NO with positive adverbs:

- I never see any children here (never - any)
- I always see no children here (no)
- They rarely read any books (rarely - any)
- They usually read no books (no)
- You can hardly say any words in French (hardly - any)
- You can almost say no words in French (no)
- We could do it without any problems (without - any)
- We could do it with no problems (no)