- a lotused with verbs to mean ‘a great amount’
- I care a lot about you.
- Thanks a lot for your help.
- I play tennis quite a lot (= often) in the summer.
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- a lot(also informal lots)used with adjectives and adverbs to mean ‘much’
- I'm feeling a lot better today.
- I spend a lot more time with my family now.
- I eat lots less than I used to.
- Are you sure he 's not Mark ? He looks an awful lot like him.
- I got into the city centre a whole lot more quickly than expected.
Word OriginOld English hlot (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch lot, German Los. The original meaning was ‘by lot’ and (by extension) the sense ‘a portion assigned to someone’; this gave rise to the other noun senses. The pronoun and adverb uses date from the early 19th cent.
Grammar Point much / a lot of / lots ofmuch / a lot of / lots of
See lot in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary- Much is used only with uncountable nouns. It is used mainly in questions and negative sentences:
- Do you have much free time?
- How much experience have you had?
- I don’t have much free time.
- In statements a lot of or lots of (informal) is much more common:
- How much (money) does she earn?
- She earns a lot of money.
- A lot of/lots of is still felt to be informal, especially in British English, so in formal writing it is better to use much, a great deal of or a large amount of.
- Very much and a lot can be used as adverbs:
- I miss my family very much.
- I miss very much my family.
- I miss my family a lot.
- Thanks a lot.
- I didn’t enjoy the film (very) much.
Check pronunciation:
lot