How to use “some” and “any”?

For educators or parents: This lesson is for young learners of English aged 9-11.

In this lesson, you’ll learn some food vocabulary, how to use “some” and “any”, and healthy eating habits based on small texts, listening, and speaking. The lesson includes countable and uncountable words related to food, types of products, and practical exercises to make the learned material solid. Get ready? Off we go!

👉 Goal: Activate food vocabulary & start thinking about healthy/unhealthy food.

1. Warm-up (5 min)

Activity: Food Brainstorm + Mini-chat

Look at the pictures of different foods. Can you find the apple, bread, milk, carrots, chocolate, chicken, pizza?

Answer the questions:

• Do you like apples?
• What do you usually eat for breakfast?
• Is pizza healthy? Why / why not?

2. Grammar Focus (5 min)

Mini-text for grammar discovery

Read the sentences. Pay attention to the words in bold and colour. Then answer the questions afterwards.

Alice is hungry. She opens the fridge. She sees some cheese, some apples, and some milk. She also sees some carrots. But there aren’t any bananas. Is there any juice? No, there isn’t any juice either. She wants to make a healthy salad, so she can use some apples, some carrots, some cheese and some olive oil. Healthy? Sure!

Questions to guide noticing:

• What food from the text can we count (1,2,3…)?
• What food can we NOT count because it’s massive or in chunks?
• Do we use some with food we can count (apples)?
• Do we use some with food we cannot count (cheese, milk)?
• Do we use any in positive sentences?
• When do we use any?

Right answers

• What food from the text can we count (1,2,3…)? Apples, carrots, bananas.
• What food can we NOT count because it’s massive or in chunks? Cheese, milk, juice, oil.
• Do we use some with food we can count (apples)? ✅ Yes.
• Do we use some with food we cannot count (cheese, milk)? ✅ Yes.
• Do we use any in positive sentences? ❌ Usually no.
• When do we use any? ✅ In questions and negatives.

Summary rule:

Some → positive sentences, offers, requests.
Any → negative sentences, questions.

3. Reading (5 min)

Task: True/False

1. Tom has some bread.
2. Tom has any tomatoes.
3. He has some lettuce.
4. He has some chicken.
5. His sandwich is unhealthy.

Right answers

1. True ✅
2. False (He doesn’t have any tomatoes) ❌
3. True ✅
4. False (He doesn’t have any chicken) ❌
5. False (It’s healthy) ❌

4. Listening (5 min)

Listen to your teacher or the audio below and write down what the speaker has in the fridge. Do NOT write what the speaker doesn’t have. You can hear: eggs, milk, carrots, rice, apples, bananas, olive oil, apples, pineapple, meat, fish.

Script of the audio

“In my fridge, there are some eggs and some carrots. There isn’t any milk. There is some rice, but there aren’t any apples. There are some bananas. I want to cook a healthy dinner.”

Right answers

Answer: ✅ Eggs, ✅ Carrots, ❌ Milk, ✅ Rice, ❌ Apples, ✅ Bananas

5. Speaking (5 min)

Activity 1: Pair Work (or teacher-student roleplay)

• Student plays “Shop customer”
• Teacher plays “Shop assistant”

Example:

• Customer: Hello, do you have any apples?
• Shop assistant: Yes, we have some apples. Do you want any bananas?
• Customer: No, I don’t want any bananas.

Activity 2: Healthy fridge game

• Teacher: In my fridge, I have some carrots.
• Student: In my fridge, I have some carrots and some fish.
• Keep adding until the fridge is “full.”

6. Practice Exercises (5 min)

A. Fill in the blanks with some or any:

1. There is ___ water in the glass.
2. Do you have ___ apples?
3. We don’t have ___ bread.
4. I want ___ rice, please.
5. Are there ___ bananas in the kitchen?

Right answers

1. some ✅
2. any ✅
3. any ✅
4. some ✅
5. any ✅

B. Make healthy vs. unhealthy meal sentences:
Use: some / any + countable + uncountable nouns

Example:

• I have some salad and some fish. (healthy)
• I don’t have any vegetables. I have some chips. (unhealthy)

👉Make 2 healthy and 2 unhealthy meal sentences.

7. Wrap-up (2-3 min)

Quick check: 

• When do we use some? When do we use any?
• What healthy food do you have at home now?

Homework idea: Draw your fridge and write 5 sentences with some/any.