"any"

[hector51]

Hi !!

I wonder why "any" is used as below:

Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.
Any friends he had were few and far between.

I know that we can you both singular and plural noun after "any",but why in the former we use friend(singular)while in the latter we use friends(plural),is there any change in meaning? Thanks in advance!!

[Johan[@CLT]]

Any can mean "everything" or "none".

Let me explain; Any friend of yours is a friend of mine = Each /every single friend of yours is a friend of mine.

It hasn't anything to do with singular or plural. "Any" can be positive or negative.

Example: How many friends do you have ? ... I don't have any !
In the latter you see that this is a rather negative use of the word "any".

Kind Regards ... ps: I do have friends

Cheers