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177
Some, not any, is preferable when making invitations or offers if it presupposes an acceptance:
Will you have some tea? Would you like to see some of my pictures?
The same holds true for negative sentences and conditional clauses with positive orientation.
She would not find some letters she had left on the table.
If you bring her some flowers, she'll be only too glad.
On the other hand any can be found in affirmative sentences if used with the meaning of no matter what, no
matter who, as in: I
am so hungry. I’ll eat any piece of stale bread. Any of them will do. (Я съем любой
черствый кусок хлеба, любой из них подойдет).
Syntactically some and any can be used as subject, object, or attribute.
The compound pronouns of this subclass (something, somebody, someone, anything, anybody, anyone) are
used only as noun-pronouns. Those ending in -thing imply non-persons, and those ending in -body imply
persons. The difference in their communicative value is the same as between some and any. The pronouns with
the element some- are used in affirmative and conditional sentences, or in interrogative, negative and
conditional sentences if they are assertive:
Something unexpected always happened to him.
Что-нибудь неожиданное всегда случалось с ним.
Let somebody bring me a glass of water.
Пусть кто-нибудь принесет мне стакан воды.
Did somebody called me up?
Мне кто-то звонил?
The pronouns beginning with any are used in negative and interrogative sentences, in conditional clauses, in
comparative phrases and in affirmative sentences meaning no matter what, no matter who.
I don’t see anyone here.
Я никого здесь не вижу.
If anyone calls, ask them to wait a moment.
Если кто-нибудь зайдет, попросите подождать минуту.
The pronoun one is indefinite-personal. It indicates people in general implying inclusion of the speaker,
much in the same way as the indefinite-personal we, you, they do:
One is used as subject and attribute (in the genitive case)
One never knows what may happen.
Никогда не знаешь, что может случиться.
The use of one is rather formal. In everyday speech we or you is preferable:
You never know what may happen.
§ 222. Negative pronouns as the term implies render the general meaning of the sentence negative.
They are: no, none, nothing, nobody, no one, neither. No is used only as an adjective-pronoun, none,
nothing, nobody, no one as noun-pronouns, neither may be used as both adjective-pronoun and noun-pronoun.
Unlike Russian, in sentences with negative pronouns no other negative words can be used:
Я ему ничего не сказал. - 1 told him nothing.