Quantifiers, possessives and demonstratives
Quantifiers
much/manya2
Quantifiers: much/many/a lot of
Grammar contents
- I have a lot of books in my bag.
- They drink lots of water.
- There aren't many tomatoes.
- I don't eat much sugar.
- ‘How much rice do you eat?’ ‘Quite a lot.’
- ‘How many potatoes are there?’ ‘Not many.’
- ‘How much money do you have?’ ‘None.’
- I don't have any money.
| Countable | Uncountable | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| + | I have | a lot of/lots of books. | a lot of/lots of time. |
| She eats | quite a lot of sweets. | quite a lot of rice. | |
| - | I don't have | many pens. | much coffee. |
| She doesn't eat | many apples. | much meat. | |
| Countable | ||
|---|---|---|
| How many potatoes are there? | A lot./Lots. | There are a lot of/lots of potatoes. |
| Quite a lot. | There are quite a lot of potatoes. | |
| Not many. | There aren't many potatoes. | |
| None. | There aren't any potatoes. | |
| Uncountable | ||
|---|---|---|
| How much cheese do you eat? | A lot./Lots. | I eat a lot of/lots of cheese. |
| Quite a lot. | I eat quite a lot of cheese. | |
| Not much. | I don't eat much cheese. | |
| None. | I don't eat any cheese. | |
In positive sentences, we use a lot of/lots of with countable or uncountable nouns to talk about a big quantity of something.
- He eats a lot of apples.
- I drink lots of milk.
We use quite a lot of to talk about a medium quantity.
- I eat quite a lot of apples.I eat quite lots of apples.
- I drink quite a lot of milk.
In negative sentences, we use many with countable nouns, and much with uncountable nouns.
- We don't have many books. (= We have a small number.)
- I don't have much money. (= I have a small amount.)
We can also use a lot of/lots of in negative sentences with countable or uncountable nouns.
- We don't eat lots of potatoes.
- I don't have a lot of time.
We use How much/How many to ask about quantities of things or people.
We use How many with countable nouns.
- How many books has she got?
- How many cars are there?
We use How much with uncountable nouns.
- How much money do you need?
- How much cheese do you eat?
We can answer with a short answer.
- ‘How many shops are there?’ ‘A few./Quite a lot./ A lot.’
- ‘How much homework do you have?’ ‘A little./None.’
Or we can answer with a full sentence, using a quantifier + noun.
- ‘How many shops are there?’ ‘There are quite a lot of shops.’
- ‘How much money have you got?’ ‘I haven't got any money.’
Lots of and a lot of mean the same, but lots of is more informal.
We use None in a short answer, but we use not any in a full sentence.
- ‘How much meat do you eat?’ ‘None./I don't eat any meat.’
We often use no in sentences with there is/there are.
- ‘How much money is there?’ ‘None./There's no money.’
Grammar contentsView all
Present perfect and past perfect
Quantifiers, possessives and demonstratives