Would you like some/any tea?

>We use some in questions when we expect the answer to be "yes" and "any' when we don't know the answer. I have never heard of that rule, and "Would you like some tea?" seems completely natural as an offer that you can say "yes" or "no" to.

that rule doesn’t exist. you can say no. it’s fine. although, at least in my community, just “yes” and “no” are rude in this case. you should say “yes, please” or “no, thank you.”

>We use some in questions when we expect the answer to be "yes" and "any' when we don't know the answer. Do we? I'm not sure this sounds like a familiar rule (formal or informal) to me. If I asked someone, for instance, "Would you like some eggs?" I wouldn't be asking under the assumption they'd say yes. All things being equal, I see no reason to lean toward one answer ("Yes" or "No thank you") or another. So yeah, this doesn't sound right to me. You might hear people say "Would you like any tea?" But I think I hear "some" there more often.

Yes, both are valid, and he will expect a yes, followed by him asking "green or black?  Iced or hot?" 

"Tea" is a noncount noun, so using "some" is just the proper way to construct the sentence. Though, you can use "any" in place of "some." In either case, they're both "yes/no" forms of the question. Anyway, the waiter isn't expecting you to say "yes." They just want to know if you would want to have any tea.

You’ll frequently hear either *any* or *some*. I have a slight preference for “any” here, because it sounds less like the waiter is making a suggestion.

Colloquially, either is acceptable.

A lot of bizarre and incorrect responses in here. Both “some” and “any” are perfectly fine in this context and your assumptions (or what you’ve been taught) about the contexts in which each word would be used have nothing to do with modern usage whatsoever.

>Why a waiter would use "some" when offering?  Well, we're not going to offer you "all" the tea, I need to keep some for the rest of my customers. But, I'll let you have "some" of the tea, for sure! Pretty much as much as you want, because we have free refills (and it's trivially easy to make more, just in case you actually do end up drinking "all" of the tea :) > Does the waiter expect the answer "yes"? The answer I'm expecting is "yes" or "no" or maybe even a different drink order. Whatever you want to drink, we're gonna make it happen, but regardless of what you end up ordering, you'll only get "some" of it, but not "all " of it.

Neither. I would say, “Would you like tea?”

My Spanish friend used to be an English tutor, and every once in a while she'd consult me about bizarre rules like this. I don't know if this is at all correct in British English, which is what she taught, but in American English it doesn't make sense.

[I don't really think the Dalek expects the Doctor to accept its offer of tea](https://youtu.be/0XssNxLTcWE?t=79) (timestamp 1:20 if it doesn't work)

I think you are overgeneralizing a rule about declarative sentences ("I have some tea," "I do not have any tea") and trying to apply it to questions, where it doesn't work. "Would you like some tea?", "Would you like any tea?", and "Would you like tea?" are functionally equivalent, although the first sounds most natural to me (native speaker, U.S.).

We seem to be seeing a lot of posts about "rules" that don't actually exist. It seems as though people are trying to deal with complexity by making up shortcuts (rules) that, at best, generalize from limited examples.

That rule does not exist. "Would you like some?" is a very common question that can be answered in any way (yes, no, maybe later, etc)

I'm drinking coffee right now.

Use ‘some’ in polite / formal / indirect offers and requests with uncountable and plural nouns. Would you like some tea? Would you like some sugar? Would you like some cake? Would you like some sweets? Would you like some chocolate? Would you like some dietary advice?

We use "any" in questions and negative sentences, however "Would you like..." questions are an exception and are followed by "some" instead. "I have **some** sugar." "I don't have **any** sugar." "Do you have **any** sugar?" "Would you like **some** sugar?"