All parrots can learn to speak a few words and phrases. Not all parrots have equally pleasant dispositions, though so...

SamA January 15, 2020

Hello @mprezzy,

Great question! This brings up some important points. I wasn't able to find the instructor comments you are referring to. However, I think the fact that you received different answers speaks to the subjectivity "almost any." This is a very subjective phrase, as the word "almost" has no mathematical value. It has different meanings for different people. When we are given "most," we know that it means more than 50%. We have a definition for it. But we don't have a specific number for "almost" or "nearly."

Saying "almost any" is like saying "a lot" or "many." The test wants us to think that these things are the same as "most," but that is not the case. I would treat them all like "some."

As you can see from this question, it didn't matter what value you assigned to "almost any." I think that is generally the case with questions that include that phrase. In my experience, I've never been tested on correctly interpreting "almost any." It seems to be throwin into stimuli as a distraction. It usually doesn't matter, which is why I think you received two different answers.

However, when in doubt, treat these phrases like "some."

mprezzy January 18, 2020

Thank you very much for that clarification.

Dalaal March 2, 2020

Hi, a follow-up question on the provided explanation, what else could be considered subjective and thus better diagrammed as some instead of most? For example, should we considerer "usually, more often than not, typically, tends to, likely, generally..." as most or as some?

Noor FA May 26, 2020

@sam

this is a post made by Irene Irina on September 13 at 03:01AM

@Ryan,

That's correct, "almost any" is best diagrammed as most as it represents a quantity less than all and more than some/few/many,

Let me know if you have any further questions.