MUCH and MANY
When we use much and many as quantifiers, we use them to describe quantity.
We use MUCH to describe uncountable nouns.
- How much sugar would you like?
- How much money did they spend?
We use MANY to describe countable nouns.
- How many cubes of sugar are there in the bowl?
- How many coins do you have in your pocket?
We use MUCH with milk, fun, snow, rain, sun, sugar, coffee, time, profit, loss, sympathy, anger, curiosity, paper, time, homework, and other uncountable nouns.
We use MANY with vegetables, apples, fruits, raisins, clouds, snowflakes, coins, bills, times, cups, cubes, cats, dogs, fish, children, students, days, parents, computers, activities, exams, and other countable nouns.
Tip: People is always plural. How many people are here?
Tip: FEW, A FEW, SEVERAL, SOME, NONE, WHOLE, HALF are also used as quantifiers.
- How many students attended? Few students attended the concert.
- Several good movies are playing this week. How many will we see?
- How much chocolate would you like? Would you like some chocolate?
- How much cake did you eat? I had none of the cake.
- How much cake did our guests eat? They ate the whole cake.
- How much sugar do you take? I take a half teaspoon of sugar in my tea.
Tip: Numbers
We use numbers to describe quantity and we often use them with much and many.
Five, thirty, two thousand, one million, two trillion, five billion, etc… are cardinal numbers.
- How many cookies do you have? I have three cookies, but Marco has several.
- How many tires does your car have? My car has four tires and none of them are new.
- How many television shows did you watch today? I watched two television shows today.
- How much sugar do you take in your tea? I take one spoonful of sugar in my tea and I would like some milk.
- How many cubes of sugar would you like? Two sugar cubes, please.
Tip: First, third, twentieth, ninth, twentieth, ninety-seventh, etc… are ordinal numbers.
Try the confusing words quiz!
