Cualquier VS. cualquiera

[workingmom20]

I get confused with these two

Cualquier means any/anything

cualquiera can be used offensively to women

but how do you make cualquier plural?

[Fazor]

Is there a plural of "anything"? I've never heard anyone say "Anythings", but I'm also having a hard time thinking of an instance where I'd want "anything" to be plural.

I think I'd tend to use "any of them" instead of "anything" when dealing with plural. Would it maybe be "Qualquier(es?) de los"?

[workingmom20]

um no, I'm trying to figure out if I can use cualquiera for something that is more than one por ejemplo, cualquiera de los dos, cualquiera de ellos.

[Fazor]

But even if the "of them" or "of the two" are plural, "anyone" or "anything" is singular, because you're only asking for one of many.

But I'm still waiting for someone more learned to reply; my grammar is no good in spanish or english.

[Rusty]

Cualquier is the apocopic form of the adjective cualquiera, and only appears before nouns, no matter their gender:
cualquier casa = any house
cualquier lugar = any place

The plural of cualquier is cualesquier, no matter the gender of the noun that follows:
cualesquier casas = any houses

The adjective cualquiera follows a noun. No matter the gender of the noun, its singular form is cualquiera and its plural form is cualesquiera. In the trailing position, the adjective may take on a pejorative meaning:
una casa cualquiera = any house (any old house)
unas casas cualesquiera = any houses (any old houses)
un hombre cualquiera = any man, any old man (a nobody)
unos hombres cualesquiera = any men, any old men (nobodies)
ella es una mujer cualquiera = she's a nobody (she's a floosy will also be understood)

Cualquiera can be used as a pronoun:
cualquiera que sea = whatever it is

The pronoun often takes the place of the plural adjective:
cualquiera de las casas = any houses (any of the houses)
cualquiera de los hombres = any men (any of the men)

Cualquiera, the noun, means a nobody (a person of no import), and is another word for a prostitute.

[Tomisimo]

Since I didn't recall ever hearing cualesquier(a), I asked a native speaker about it. I used a sample sentence to elicit the word. First I said "un hombre cualquiera". Then I asked the subject for the plural "unos hombres ________", to which they replied "unos hombres comunes", essentially avoiding "cualesquiera". But when pressed, and when I used "cualesquiera", then they agreeded that that sounded fine. Just thought I'd share.

[Rusty]

The plural forms aren't used a lot (you'll find plenty of Internet hits on them, though). That's why I said what I did about the pronoun. The 'cualquiera de los/las' structure is used more often.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Una mujer cualquiera" doesn't necessarily have a negative meaning; it could be just "any woman". "Una cualquiera" is an inequivocal insult.

[demcfarlane]

Originally Posted by workingmom20

um no, I'm trying to figure out if I can use cualquiera for something that is more than one por ejemplo, cualquiera de los dos, cualquiera de ellos.

How about "De los dos, ¿cuál es / qué es...?", depending on what you wish to find out. This does bring up the distinction between cúal and qué and that is another subject.