The first suggests that you know it's someone's birthday today. The second doesn't- it's an enquiry that may be answered in the negative for me.

Student or Learner
Are the following questions any different? (Is "any" used correctly here?)
1. Whose birthday is it today?
2. Whose birthday is today?
The first suggests that you know it's someone's birthday today. The second doesn't- it's an enquiry that may be answered in the negative for me.
So apart from that, they are both fine and correct. Is it Ok?
By the way, is this question correct? "Are the following questions any different?"
Last edited by English4everyone; 20-Nov-2012 at 15:48.
1 In the correct contexts.
2 I would use Is there any difference between the following questions?
The first "Whose birthday is it today?" suggests, as bhaisahab said, that you already know it is someone's birthday today but you're not sure whose. There may be 30 people in the room, earlier you heard someone say that someone has a birthday day but they didn't say which person. In order to find out, you ask "Whose birthday is it today?" You assume that at least one person will say "It's my birthday today!"
If you didn't know there was a birthday today, but were just curious to see if anyone in the room had a birthday, you would ask "Is it anyone's birthday day?" or "Does anyone in the room have a birthday today?"
Remember - if you don't use correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing, anything you write will be incorrect.
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