Explain something: anything [closed]

Solution 1:

Any is a Negative Polarity Item, and thus requires a negative context.
Some is not an NPI, and quite often some and any in complementary distribution

• I know he bought some, but he doesn't have any left.

However, some constructions, like questions, allow either some or any.

• Did he eat any breakfast?
• Did he eat some breakfast?

Both of these questions are grammatical, and anyone who'd like to explain their difference --
if any -- in precise terms which apply to any sentence (not just this one) is welcome to try.
My impression is that there's no systematic difference in meaning.

For more details, see Robin Lakoff's 1969 paper

"Some Reasons Why There Can't Be Any some-any Rule"

Solution 2:

Rather than worrying about when they are synonymous and when not, why not focus on what they actually mean?

Every refers to all members of the class.

Some refers to a subset of the members of the class (at least one, but not all). (If the noun is singular, as in your last example, "some website", it refers to a subset with only one member. Someone and somebody are singular.)

Any refers to any specific member of the class, selected at random.

The usage of the compound words formed from these follow from the above. For example:

Since Everyone refers to all members of the class, it refers to all members of the class--it is used with a singular verb but all members of the class are in view.

Someone only refers to one individual. There may be multiple individuals that satisfy the criteria, but only one is needed.

Depending on context, Anyone may be satisfied by a single individual or by as many as meet the criteria. Its range of meaning is bounded by that of someone (a single member) and everyone (all members). Depending on context it could be equivalent to either:

"Bring me anyone in the audience wearing a red tie." is the same as: "Bring me everyone in the audience wearing a red tie." (In either case, all members of the audience wearing a red tie would be brought to him.)

But: "Does anyone know a good mechanic?" means the same as: "Does someone know a good mechanic?" (Only one person need respond to meet the speakers' needs.)

And again: "If any citizen so wishes, the council will make that information available." is different from: "If every citizen so wishes, the council will make that information available." In the former case, any random member of the class of citizen may request the information. In the latter, every member must make the request before the information is made available.

Solution 3:

Tell him that "any" is mainly used with a negative verb or in questions, "some" is for positive sentences where they can be reversed into a question using "any", and "every" is pretty much "every"thing else.

That might be confusing, but going into extreme detail will confuse him more. Any time you're talking to someone a bit less experienced than you are, it's helpful to overgeneralize everything in order to make sure at least some information makes it through.