Can one say:
[color=red]1-He didn’t take some books.
instead of:
[color=darkblue]2-He left some books behind.
Can one say:
[color=red]3-He didn’t take some money.
instead of:
[color=darkblue]4-He left some money behind.
Can one say:
[color=red]5-He didn’t do some work.
instead of:
[color=darkblue]6-He didn’t do all the work.
I think, in the red sentences, SOME should be substituted by ANY if not must.
Hi Navi,
like Vietanpham wrote: in negative clauses any is correct.
Plus, in the context you wrote the red sentences, to me, they have the meaning of none or nothing at all (in general). Whereat the blue ones suggest that the mentioned person had taken or done something indeed but not everything or completely.
[color=red]He didn´t take any books. = After he left the library he hadn´t any books.
[color=darkblue]He left some books behind = He took some books, but not all.
[color=red]He didn´t take any money = He did all the service for free.
[color=darkblue]He left some money behind = He took some money but also left some for his wife to shop.
[color=red]He didn´t do any work = That lazybone didn´t do anything at all
[color=darkblue]He didn´t do all the work = He picked up all the garbage from the green and put it into the baskets, but didn´t empty them.
I hope I have explained it right
Michael
Hi Foah. I myself thought that if we use any there, the meaning of the sentences will be different from the original ones. But I thought my answer wasn’t wrong as he had just asked about the possibility. In addition, there are some sentences in which we still use some not for asking but for agreement like HAVE YOU GOT SOMETHING IN YOUR EYE? In this sentence, the speaker is indeed seeing that there’s something in his mate’s eye. Back to the topic, if any is used it will mean …NOT AT ALL not SOME. So I suggest that he use complex sentence to describe his thought.