TKG English Learner's Dictionary

anything

anythingpronoun

American /ˈɛn.iˌθɪŋ/ British /ˈen.iˌθɪŋ/ The strongest stress is on the first part: EN-ee-thing.
very commondefining vocabulary

  1. any thingused for a thing of any kind, especially in a question, a negative sentence, or a condition, or to mean it does not matter what

    Is anything wrong? is a typical question use; say anything you like shows the positive, free-choice use, where anything means it does not matter what.

    Collocations

    phrase anything else, hardly anything, or anything

    Compare something (anything in questions, negatives, and conditions; something for a particular but unnamed thing); nothing

    For translators (sense 1)

    Grammar trap Anything usually replaces something when a sentence becomes a question or a negative (I have something becomes I don't have anything), but something is kept in an offer or when a particular thing is meant: would you like something to drink?

Word family

Usage

Anything and something are not interchangeable: anything fits questions, negatives, and conditions, or a positive statement meaning it does not matter what; something reports a particular, if unnamed, thing.

Common mistakes

I don't want something else. I don't want anything else.
In a negative sentence, anything is used, not something.