omission of "any"

subhajit123 posted:

Can I omit any in the following sentences with uncountable nouns? Do they still sound natural without it?

• If philosophers were made presidents instead of politicians, There would not be (any) war.
• if we keep on wasting drinking water like this, in future there will not be (any) drinking water.

Hi, Subhajit,

I like the idea that you are trying to express in your first example.  You can omit "any" from those sentences. However, if you do, I recommend also changing "would/will not be NP" to "would/will be no NP":

• If presidents were philosophers rather than politicians, there would be no war.
• If we keep on wasting drinking water like this, in the future there will be no drinking water.

I have made some other adjustments to the sentences. When I read the "if"-clause of your first example, my first thought was that you were talking about philosophers' being made presidents instead of their being made politicians!