Is there a difference in meaning and if so which one between: "Is there A teacher's desk in your classroom?" and "Is there ANY teacher's desk in your classroom?" and between: "Is there PAPER in your study?" and "Is there ANY paper in your study?" concerning an object that is expected to be found at some place? And also, between: "Are there POSTERS on the walls of your kitchen?" and "Are there ANY posters on the walls of your kitchen?"
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... for an object that can only possibly be at some place?– zenith3Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 17:38
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1Do you have any X? asks whether you have one or more X's (as opposed to none). But if the asker only wants one (or if it's unlikely or irrelevant that you'd have more than one), he'll probably just ask Do you have an X? Hence it's usually Do you have a match?, rather than Do you have any matches?– FumbleFingersCommented Nov 29, 2020 at 19:16
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1 Answer
The question
Is there a teacher’s desk in that classroom?
is slightly ambiguous, at least in the absence of context. It may be asking whether there is exactly one such desk in that classroom or whether there is one or more.
Is there any teacher’s desk in that classroom?
unambiguously asks whether there is at least one such desk in that classroom.
I stress that the ambiguity in the first question is slight and would likely be non-existent given sufficient context. Most people will probably interpret both questions as asking whether there is at least one. But if I were working with an attorney to compile a list of interrogatories, I’d avoid any possibility of ambiguity by asking
How many teacher’s desks were in that classroom?
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How about "Is there chalk in the classroom? / paper in your study??" and "Is there ANY chalk in the classroom? / paper in your study?"– zenith3Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 19:27
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How about "a" or "any" before an uncountable noun in such questions?– zenith3Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 19:28
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1"Is there water in the pitcher?" means the same thing as "Is there any water in the pitcher?" Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 20:43
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However, "is there any water?" sounds more usual to me, "Is there water?" a bit strange, doesn't it?– zenith3Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 6:13
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1If you compare “is there any water” and “is there water” on ngram, you will see that they were almost equally common from 1920 to 2000. Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 16:03