Italian speakers often have a confusion on the different *uses* of "any" *and*  its different *meanings*.

[**Any**](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/any) is usually defined as being an adjective, an adverb, a pronoun, a determiner and until today I was unaware of a further subclass: a [numeral](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral_%28linguistics%29) 

> Many words of different parts of speech indicate number or quantity.
> Quantifiers do not enumerate, or designate a specific number, but give
> another, **often less specific, indication of amount**. Examples are words
> such as every, most, least, some, etc.

Hence, "any" has a similar meaning to "a" and is *normally* used with *uncountable* and *plural nouns.*
 
 - I haven't got any books. (singular and plural noun)
 - Do you need any information? (uncountable noun)

There are quite a number of different uses of "any" and its compounds e.g. anything, anyone etc.. but to begin with these will do:

Examples and explanations taken (and adapted) from **Practical English Usage** *by Michael Swan:*
 
"Any" meanings and uses:

 1. It doesn't matter which  
   - It's my treat. Choose any dress you like. 
   - Take any card.
   - Any book on grammar will tell you how to use "any".

 2. In questions and negative sentences "any" can be used with comparatives, with "different" and in the expressions *any/good*, *any/use*, and *any/point*. 

    - Is she any better?
    - I can't walk any further
    - You don't look any different now than ten years ago.
    - Is there any point in carrying on? 
    - Was the film any good?

 3. In sentences with negative adverbs such as *never*, *hardly* and *rarely*

    - He never has any spare time
    - She hardly eats anything
    - They rarely visit anyone