It’s been a while since I did a comparisons / common mistakes post, but the difference between “any more” and “anymore” is one that I’ve seen quite a lot lately. In fact, I sometimes stop and think about it myself when writing, because their meanings are closely related, but not interchangeable.

Some people simply use one version or the other all the time, but actually using “any more” with two words or “anymore” as one word carry different meanings. So, let’s take a look!

“Any More” With Two Words

When we write “any more” with two words, this is a phrase used as a determiner, or more specifically a quantifier. That’s to say, it comes at the front of a noun phrase to tell us how much.

• Would you like any more croissants?
• I can’t drink any more
• If they have any more cheese in the shop, please buy some.

Can you guess what quantity is described from these examples? It combines any and more by describing an indefinite additional amount of something. It can also emphasise the smallest additional amount, i.e. “even a little bit more”. You might notice from the examples that we don’t use it in positive / affirmative statements, but mostly with negatives, questions and conditionals. For affirmative statements, we more typically use “some more”.

• I will make some more cake. NOT I will make any more cake.

“Anymore” As One Word

“Anymore” without a space, on the other hand, is an adverb that means any longer / any further with reference to how long something is done for. Again, it is mostly used with negatives, usually to express that something that was done or true before is no longer done or no longer true now.

• He doesn’t live here anymore.
• Wendy hasn’t got long hair anymore.

As you can see, the two uses are grammatically different, so why is there room for confusion? There are two issues: firstly, as I said above, the meanings are quite close, as both essentially refer to an additional amount of something. “Any more” refers to an additional quantity/amount, while “anymore” refers to an additional length of time. You may have to stop and consider which; but look to general English and you find the same grammatical pattern: determiners describe nouns (some, many) whilst adverbs describe time or frequency (lately, recently, often). Are we asking “how much” or making a reference to time?

The other problem, however, is that the adverb use of “anymore” is not always one word. Actually, it’s a relatively modern evolution of the word, especially found in American English but gradually adopted as the more common form. The adverbial “anymore” was, in the past, also two words – and is still used that way by some people. This is the nature of English as an evolving language; we can say with clear confidence that “any more” with two words should be used as a quantifier, whilst “anymore” should be used as an adverb, but that is not to say the phrase “any more” is never used as an adverb, nor that it is necessarily incorrect to do so!

If you have any thoughts or questions, as always, please comment below!