Grammar question?

Question

I am just wondering, do nouns after "any" need to be in plural form or singular form, or are they both acceptable?

Sentences such as:
1. Do you have any idea what I am on about?
2. Do you have any ideas what I am on about?

They both seem okay, can you please clarify which one is correct?

There are others such as:
Do you have any drink/drinks in the fridge?
Did you have any conversation / conversations with him?
Do you have any pen / pens with you?

Would someone who is good in standard English, clarify this for me?

Answer 1

You can use either a plural or singular word after "any."

For the first two sentences, either is correct. It depends on how many ideas you're asking about.

For the second set, all would be plural, only because they are all general questions. You are not know how many drinks, pens, or conversations there were. If you are only asking about one, you would say:
Do you have a drink in the fridge?
Did you have a conversation with him?
Do you have a pen with you?

Answer 2

I'm not sure about British English, because I think many of the plurals are different than in American English. "Do you have any idea what I am on about", would be the correct sentence. For the others...

"Do you have any drinks?" would be better, unless you changed it to "Do you have a drink?"

Either, "Did you ever have a conversation with him?" for singular, or "Did you every have any conversations with him?" for plural. But if you would want to sound more casual, you could ask, "Have you ever talked to him?"

"Do you have a pen with you" (singular) "Do you have any pens with you?" (plural)

Answer 3

I think it for the most part, it depends on what you are talking about. For example, 'Do you have any water I can drink?'. If you ask about a specific KIND of drink, instead asking in general if they have something you can drink, it would not be plural. If you wanted to know if someone had a single pen with them, it would be 'Do you have a pen with you?'. It's a really interesting question, and I guess I have personally never really thought about it because I grew up speaking English. I hope that this helps. But I am not sure it will, because I have been told that the English language has many cases where there are exceptions to the rules, and that can make it confusing to people trying to learn the language.

Answer 4

You can use either the singular or the plural depending on what you want to say. Usually, you would say "Do you have any idea what I am on about" but "Do you have any ideas about this" but you can use either the singular or the plural.

With the last you would say "Do you have any pens with you?" or "Do you have a pen with you?"

Answer 5

Both can be used in plural and singular form.

Answer 6

As far as I know you use plural with countable nouns
and singular with uncountable ones.

Countable:
- No new messages.
- No government systems are perfect.

Uncountable:
- I have no money.
- I don't have any money.