2

You can say:

[1] You can use any pen to fill out this form.

But people say you can't say:

[2] I meet any man of the group. [3] I met any man of the group.

I wonder why you can't. To me, with [2], you have a good intention of seeing any man that belongs to the group who wants to see me. Or, this describes your inclination. [3] is just the past version of [2]

Why can't you say the two sentences alone.

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  • These sentences modified with qualities like so would be okay right? (1) I met any man of the group who wanted to meet me. (2) I met every man of the group who wanted to meet me. (3) I met each man of the group who wanted to meet me.
    – Sssamy
    Dec 1, 2018 at 8:56

2 Answers 2

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[2] and [3] has no sense because these phrases are in Present Indefinite Tense. It's about what you usually do and not about you CAN do. You can say:

I can meet any man of the group.

Or you can say (if it's about you):

I meet every man of the group.

2

Your first answer:

We use "any" for indefinite quantities in questions and negative sentences. We use some in affirmative sentences:

Q: Have you got any eggs?

A1: I haven’t got any eggs.

A2: I’ve got some eggs.

But not: I’ve got any eggs.

Second answer:

We can use "any of" to refer to a part of a whole:

So,

I haven’t met any of the men from this group.

Similarly:

You can't say:

Are any man going to the meeting?

Correct one will be:

Are any of you going to the meeting?

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  • 1
    Your original answer had a faulty example. We can’t say, "I meet any of the men of this group,” (although one could say, “I won’t meet any of the men from this group”). We can't use “any of” to mean "part of a whole” in just any sentence – perhaps you could ask a question about that? Also, as a footnote, please be more careful with your spacing around punctuation.
    – J.R.
    Dec 1, 2018 at 13:28

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