Thread: какой-нибудь, какой-то, какой-либо и любой

Here's a copy-paste of my old post from another forum devoted to learning of the Russian language:

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ТО vs НИБУДЬ

At first, a little of theory.
Both of them are used in Russian to describe something undefined. The examples are:
Кто-то, Что-то, Где-то, Когда-то, Почему-то, Зачем-то, Отчего-то, etc.
And just the same with НИБУДЬ

Their equivalents in English are somebody, someone, somewhere, etc.

There are many differences in the usage of ТО and НИБУДЬ in the Russian language, depending on:
what we mean: plurals or singulars
what tense we use: past, present or future
what kind of sentence we use: declarative, interrogative; main or additional part of a sentence.

The main idea is to use ТО when we mean something ... kind of definite things, and НИБУДЬ when we mean something indefinite.

With the past tense we use mainly ТО, that's because the history is always definite.
While with the future tense we can use both variants depending on what we mean.

Examples:

Я где-то достал эту запись. I got this recording from somewhere.
This "somewhere" here is a definite thing, even though we have no idea now, where exactly from we got the recording.

And the future variant:
Я где-нибудь найду эту запись. I'll find this recording somewhere.
Now we use НИБУДЬ because we don't mean a certain place, where this recording could be found.
There are MANY variants where we can find it, and it doesn't matter now, where exactly I will find it.

Если я пойду в магазин за чем-нибудь, я могу купить тебе что-нибудь тоже.
If I go to the store to buy something, I can buy something for you, too.
We use нибудь because we don't focus on the object of that bought. We don't mean anything certain.

Я пошел в магазин за чем-то. I went to a shop for something.
That bought has been already executed sometime in the past. We bought something certain, although we don't remember what exactly.
This is the reason why we use ТО.

Кто-нибудь может мне помочь? Can anybody help me?
We don't mean anyone certain, but we assume that many of those people can help us.

Кто-то может мне помочь?
Same situation, but other meaning: We doubt that many people can help us. Maybe 1 of 10.

Посмотри, там кто-нибудь дерется? Look, are there anyone fighting?
Here we concentrate on the presence or absence of the fact of fighting.
The action itself is more interesting for us than who's actually performing it.

Посмотри, там кто-то дерется? Look, are there someone fighting? (not sure about the English variant)
Yes, there is someone fighting, and we wanna know, who exactly.

Посмотри, там кто-то дерется! - Declarative. Look, there's someone fighting. There is (someone certain) fighting.
It doesn't matter that we don't know who exactly. And we focus on the people who are fighting rather than on the action.
Посмотри, Там кто-нибудь дерется! - this is just wrong. Sounds like "Look, there's anybody fighting!"

A police officer is telling those 10 criminals, standing in front of him in a line.
I'm sure that someone of you, bast**ds, killed that guy. He uses Кто-ТО.
Я уверен, что кто-то из вас убил этого человека.

But if he's not sure if the killer is among them, he asks.
Убил ли кто-нибудь из вас этого человека?
(Sounds a bit weird for a Russian, but grammatically correct)

Same НИБУДЬ used for:
Havs anyone of you killed someone? Кто-нибудь из вас убивал кого-нибудь? (когда-нибудь)

The TO is used when we recall about something habitual in the past.
Когда-то я был молодой. Someday I was young.

Use НИБУДЬ for an indefinite time in the future:
Когда-нибудь я куплю эту машину. Someday I'll buy this car.

If we use БЫ - we can use either, but НИБУДЬ is better, because БЫ has never happened and it's indefinite.
Если бы кто-нибудь помог мне... If someone helped me.

We can use either in interrogative sentences:
Таня любит кого-нибудь? Does Tanya love anyone?
Таня любит кого-то? Like we give more personal attitude to that someone. Maybe we suspect who it is.

With declarative statements we can use ТО.
Таня любит кого-то.
Like she can't be in love with ANYone. (She is not a <insert a bad word here>).
So we can't use "любит кого-нибудь" in declarations.

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A piece of advice:
Use mainly ТО-versions. It is used in 95% of all the cases.

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Think of НИБУДЬ as of an exception.
Maybe like adding "...EVER IT WAS". Like
Кто-нибудь - whoEVER IT WAS, or "If someone, whoever he was, can do it, then ..."
Где-нибудь - where...
etc.
If you can insert these phrases and the phrase keeps its meaning, then you can use НИБУДЬ. (I'm not sure here although, this rule is yet to be tested).

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Кто-либо = кто-нибудь. (a formal variant)

So all that said, and getting back to your question:
Если Вы хотите (получить) какую-нибудь информацию позвоните мне.

we have:
so if you want any (I have no idea what exactly, literally any) info -- call me. ("нибудь")
so if you want some (special, maybe additional info, maybe I suspect what info you can request, but keep my tongue shut for now) info -- call me. ("то")

Hope that helps.

This is exactly why I am telling Russian are killing me!!!!!

Посмотри, там кто-нибудь дерется? Look, are there anyone fighting?
Here we concentrate on the presence or absence of the fact of fighting.
The action itself is more interesting for us than who's actually performing it.

Посмотри, там кто-то дерется? Look, are there someone fighting? (not sure about the English variant)
Yes, there is someone fighting, and we wanna know, who exactly.

Посмотри, там кто-то дерется! - Declarative. Look, there's someone fighting. There is (someone certain) fighting.
It doesn't matter that we don't know who exactly. And we focus on the people who are fighting rather than on the action.
Посмотри, Там кто-нибудь дерется! - this is just wrong. Sounds like "Look, there's anybody fighting!"

A police officer is telling those 10 criminals, standing in front of him in a line.
I'm sure that someone of you, bast**ds, killed that guy. He uses Кто-ТО.
Я уверен, что кто-то из вас убил этого человека.

But if he's not sure if the killer is among them, he asks.
Убил ли кто-нибудь из вас этого человека?
(Sounds a bit weird for a Russian, but grammatically correct)

I don't claim that I read and understood everything but I have reached some conclusions. This post will be cornerstone of my future analysis
One sentence that puzzles me:
I have also to translate some documents of some other customers.
This will be translated as:
Мне следует перевести какие-то документы каких-то других клиентов.
Here the sentence is in future. Because I know very well documents which documents I will translated I use то instead of нибудь.
Correct?

P.S. On the sentences you wrote Medved a small correction
осмотри, там кто-нибудь дерется? Look, is there anyone fighting?
Here we concentrate on the presence or absence of the fact of fighting.
The action itself is more interesting for us than who's actually performing it.

Посмотри, там кто-то дерется? Look, is there someone fighting? (not sure about the English variant)
Yes, there is someone fighting, and we wanna know, who exactly.

Originally Posted by Antonio1986

I have also to translate some documents of some other customers.
This will be translated as:
Мне следует перевести какие-то документы каких-то других клиентов.

I'd say just "Мне надо перевести документы других клиентов."

Originally Posted by it-ogo

I'd say just "Мне надо перевести документы других клиентов."

For some reason I am confusing the words некоторый and the word какой-нибудь/то
For example:
1. This historical event is described in some books =
(a) это историческое событие описано в некоторых книгах
- I suppose that this implies that there are for example 10 books and the event is described in the 3 or 4 of them.
(b) это историческое событие описано в каких-нибудь книгах =
- The only thing I know here is that the event is descriped in some books but I don't have the slighest idea in how many.

Originally Posted by Antonio1986

For some reason I am confusing the words некоторый and the word какой-нибудь/то
For example:
1. This historical event is described in some books =
(a) это историческое событие описано в некоторых книгах
- I suppose that this implies that there are for example 10 books and the event is described in the 3 or 4 of them.
(b) это историческое событие описано в каких-нибудь книгах =
- The only thing I know here is that the event is descriped in some books but I don't have the slighest idea in how many.

I wrote a reply but it was lost due to site crash.

(a) Normally "некоторых" = "some of ..." that is a selection from some specified set is implied. "Существует много книг по этому периоду. В некоторых (из них) описано это событие."

(b) "это историческое событие описано в каких-нибудь книгах" = " I guess this event is described in some books (whatever thay are)." - But this usage is too specific. Much better "какие-нибудь" works in questions. "Описано ли это событие в каких-нибудь книгах? Да, оно описано в каких-то книгах." = "Do any books describe the event? Yes, some books do."