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"Am I missing something?" or "Am I missing anything?":

I can see how there is a subtle difference in the meaning but is one of these idiomatic?

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  • They're both fine, and it would be splitting hairs to claim any semantic difference. But something is significantly more common for this exact utterance. Nov 2, 2020 at 15:40

2 Answers 2

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Am I missing something?

This is more widely used, colloquial, idiomatic and grammatical as well. For example:

  • "Wait a second, am I missing something here?"
  • "Am I missing something if I don't travel abroad?"

Am I missing anything?

This is equally idiomatic and grammatical. However its usage is (quite) low as compared to am I missing something.

  • "Am I missing anything if I don't socialize?"
  • "Am I missing anything if I don't accompany you to the wedding ceremony?"

However I feel, something refers to a small range of objectifiable things, whereas anything indicates a far bigger range.

missing something vs missing anything

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I'd say that something can be used in a more general way for when you are referring to any arbitrary number of things while anything would be better suited when the things are limited in numbers.

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