Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
There was ____ in my suitcase so I could carry it without ____ effort.
a) something/no
b) nothing/any
c) anything/some
d) nothing/some
e) some/any

Answer 1

Hint: The meaning that the sentence is trying to convey is very specific. Try to identify the meaning. And then, the options will be easy to eliminate.

Complete answer:
The given sentence has a lot of indefinite pronouns. This means that the meaning of the sentence should be that the suitcase is empty and the person is able to carry it quite easily.

Now, we know the meaning of the sentence. Let’s look at the given options:

a) something/no - The sentence would be ‘There was something in my suitcase so I could carry it without no effort’. This sentence has a double negation, i.e. ‘without’ being used with ‘no’. This is grammatically incorrect. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) nothing/any - The sentence would be ‘There was nothing in my suitcase so I could carry it without any effort’. This sentence does not have double negation, and it retains its original meaning. It is grammatically correct. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct answer.
c) anything/some - The sentence would be ‘There was anything in my suitcase so I could carry it without some effort’. This sentence does not make any sense. It is grammatically incorrect. This sentence does not have the same meaning. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) nothing/some - The sentence would be ‘There was nothing in my suitcase so I could carry it without some effort’. The first part of the sentence fits perfectly. However, the second part of the sentence is not grammatically correct. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
e) some/any - The sentence would be ‘There was some in my suitcase so I could carry it without any effort’. The first part of the sentence is grammatically incorrect. It does not fit into the context of the sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.

Note:
Make sure that you do not use double negation as that is grammatically incorrect. Go through the given sentence and options. Then, choose the option that fits perfectly into the sentence.