Question

Please have ______ more rice, you haven’t taken much.
A) some
B) any
C) no
D) several

Answer 1

Hint: The statement given is incomplete and we need to make it complete by filling the blank with an appropriate word which should be grammatically correct and of correct tense. The statement given is a requesting statement so we need to keep this in mind while filling the blank.

Complete answer:
Determiners are the words that are used before a noun to make clear the meaning of a noun. E.g.: a, an, the, some, these, this, etc. Here the given sentence is a request made by a person to offer food to him/her. Now let us analyse the given options:

Option A) some – is the correct answer because it means “a certain amount”. The statement “Please have some more rice, you haven’t taken much” is the correct statement because it means that the speaker is asking the second person to have some more rice to eat. Rice is a type of staple food and the quantity of staple food can’t be determined in a particular number. Some is used to define the quantity of anything that is not fixed or certain. Therefore, some is the right answer.

Option B) any – is the incorrect answer because although it is used instead of “some” sometimes but the sentences are of negative nature. E.g.: I don’t have any money to buy food. And the statement given is the speaker asking the person to have more food, which is the positive statement. Any means no matter how much or how many. Therefore, “any” is incorrect because it does not fit in the meaning of the sentence.

Option C) no – is the incorrect answer because it is used to give a negative reply or indicate some negative aspects. E.g.: You have no respect for elders. No means negative response. The statement given is of positive nature and therefore, “no” is an incorrect option because the statement will have incorrect meaning.

Option D) several – is the incorrect answer because it means more than two or three but not many. It basically defines the quantity in numbers. It also means separate. E.g.: I have several lamps in my house. Since rice is a type of food which is considered as a collective item, we can’t define it in a particular quantity. Therefore, “several” is an incorrect option because the statement will have incorrect meaning.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘A’.

Additional Information: “some” is used as a determiner pronoun. “any” is used as a determiner pronoun or adverb. “no” is used as a determiner or exclamation or noun or adverb. “several” is used as an adjective or determiner pronoun.

Note: We will understand the concept of determiners with examples. The four types of determiners are articles (a, an, the, etc.) “E.g.: The Sun sets at West”, possessive (his, mine, etc.) “E.g.: His notes are good”, demonstratives (this, these, etc.) “E.g.: These books are very good”, and quantifiers (few, many, etc.). E.g.: “Few people understand the importance of environmental conservation”.