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Good morning, people. I know there are some related posts, but they don't answer my many questions. All ELL and other forum links are purple. Believe me, hahaha.

1 - In questions/negative questions, can ANY follow a singular noun?

Q: Do you have a pen to lend me? A: No, I don't have any pen/pens.

p.S.: The doubt arose because we know that "ANY" is not commonly used with singular count nouns. I don't know if the exception applies in this case.

2 - Is it okay to drop "any" and leave just not alone?

Q: Don't you have pens?

That sounds pretty general to me.

Q: Don't you have any pens?

It sounds like "Any kind of."

3 - Are NO and NOT ANY "identical", meaning 0? Does Using NO turn the sentence more emphatic?

A: I don't have any bad intentions.

This doesn't sound like "any kind of" to me, as in the previous example. But it sounds like "zero/0"

B: I have no bad intentions.

Thank you in advance.

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    This would be better as three separate questions. 1 - no. 2 - both are okay. Other possibilities include "Didn't you bring pens?" or "Didn't you bring any pens?" 3 - yes, they are identical in meaning and the mean zero. Not any is more emphatic.
    – a101010
    Sep 19, 2022 at 16:51
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    Don't get too committed to ideas about different choices of phrasing being more or less emphatic. On average, I don't have any idea is probably more emphatic than I have no idea, but it's a fairly meaningless distinction. And to be honest, I'm inclined to think I have no siblings might actually tend to be more emphatic than I don't have any siblings - if only because the shorter first version is more succinctly and starkly bleak.
    – FumbleFingers
    Sep 19, 2022 at 16:51
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    No, the exception doesn't apply in this case (though you could say No, I don't have any kind of pen). I would understand Don't you have any pens? to imply Not even one or two? and Don't you have pens? to imply something like Don't you ever buy or use a pen?
    – Kate Bunting
    Sep 19, 2022 at 16:56

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There seem to me to be at least two fifferent questions here.

I will answer the one which asks if "any" can be used with a singular noun. The answer to that is clearly "yes".

If someone asks "Do you have a good pen to write with?" i.e. a question about a specific type of pen, it is perfectly correct to answer: "No, I don't have any pen". This means you have no pen at all.

It is also not incorrect to simply to say "I need to write a note, but don't have any pen"

It is effectively short for "any kind of (pen)".

It is also, of course, used with non-count nouns - as in "Do you have any money/bread/food/knowledge about flying saucers etc?""

A frequently used idiom involving "any" with a singular noun would be "Do you have any idea who is president of the Royal Society?""

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    Thank you, WS2. I Didn't ask more than one question so as not to 'clog' the forum feed. I'll take it into account next time.
    – Portugueseporto
    Sep 19, 2022 at 16:58

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