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¿Alguien encontró algún rastro en el bosque?

¿Alguien encontró algún rastro en el bosque?
Did anyone find any trace in the forest?
From Lesson 150:Indefinite pronouns for people (alguien, nadie)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about ¿Alguien encontró algún rastro en el bosque?

The English translation says "anyone", but doesn't alguien mean "someone"?
In Spanish, alguien covers both "someone" and "anyone" as long as you are referring to a person. English usually switches to "anyone" in questions, but Spanish just uses alguien whether you are making a statement like "Someone found it" or asking a question like "Did anyone find it?"
Why is the verb encontró in the singular (he/she) form if "anyone" could be multiple people?
Even though alguien might refer to a group of people in reality, grammatically it is always a singular word. You conjugate the verb exactly as you would for él or ella. That is why we use encontró (the singular past tense) instead of the plural encontraron.
Why is it algún rastro instead of alguno rastro?
The word alguno drops its final -o and gains an accent mark to become algún whenever it comes directly before a masculine singular noun. Since rastro (trace) is a masculine singular noun, alguno must change to algún.
Could I say "¿Alguno encontró..." instead of "¿Alguien encontró..." at the beginning?
Usually, no. Alguien specifically means an unknown person ("someone" or "anyone"). You would only use alguno here if you were referring to "any one" of a specific, restricted group you were just talking about, like "Did any [of the searchers] find a trace?" Otherwise, for a general "anyone", always use alguien.

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