singular or plural noun

[Winwin2011]

We can use any in a positive sentence to mean “it doesn’t matter which”

e.g Any student will be able to tell you where the college library is.

I was wondering if it is natural to use “students” in the above sentence? If yes, is there a difference between “student” and “students” ?

Thanks for your help.

 

[charliedeut]

IMO, no. You would normally ask one student at a time, not many.

 

[Winwin2011]

1. Any student who wishes to learn will have to study.
2. Any students who wish to learn will have to study.

Which of the above sentences is more natural? Thanks for your help.

 

[billmcd]

1. Any student who wishes to learn will have to study.
2. Any students who wish to learn will have to study.

Which of the above sentences is more natural? Thanks for your help.

I think that "any" can be used with the plural, "students", but I don't like your example without more context. To explain, in your #1 the statement is suggesting that any one student of the entire group who wishes to learn etc., which could be more than one. Using "any students", the phrase could be used to make a distinction between two or among several groups within one larger group. For example, "Next week is our annual class trip. Any students ("student" could be used too) who will be traveling by car with your parents must notify the Principal's office by Friday".

P.S. In my preceding example the use of "students" might indicate that the teacher knows from experience that there will be more than one student and so he/she simply uses the plural form. This is a very subtle difference and, in fact, I don't think anyone listening is going to notice a difference between use of the singular or plural form.

 

[tzfujimino]

1. Any student who wishes to learn will have to study.
2. Any students who wish to learn will have to study.

Which of the above sentences is more natural? Thanks for your help.

Hello, Winwin.:-D

I'd go for #1.

The "any" you are interested in is used with singular countable nouns.
Please see definiton #2 here: any - Definition and pronunciation | Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
and more examples here: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

However, I've found these:
250 sentence examples using 'any students who'
226 sentence examples using 'any student who'

So, what I've found is that I'm confused as well.

 

[Raymott]

1. Any student who wishes to learn will have to study.
2. Any students who wish to learn will have to study.

Which of the above sentences is more natural? Thanks for your help.

You can say either of those. Since the natural scenario would be that many students would wish to learn, I'd use "Any students" - if I had to choose one. I'd actually say, "Students who wish to learn will have to study" if I felt a need to say that.
If it is something that maybe no one would want to do, you could use "Any student" - "Any student who wishes to stay behind to help me tidy the classroom, please let me know."
But that's just my preference.

 

[emsr2d2]

They're both absolutely fine and I don't have a preference in that particular context. I'm trying to think of examples where I would prefer one over the other ... OK, here we go.

a) Any student who misbehaves will be sent out of the classroom immediately.
b) Any students who missed my last class will be able to catch up with what they missed next Tuesday during their lunchbreak.

 

[Winwin2011]

[1] You can take any book you want. (Does it mean you can take just one book?)
[2] You can take any books you want. (Does it mean you can take as many books as you want?)

Thanks.