MUCH and MANY – Determiners

MUCH and MANY are determiners.
They indicate the quantity or amount of a noun. In the affirmative, “much” and “many” mean “a large amount” or “a large quantity”.

What is the difference between “much” and “many”?

We use MANY only with countable nouns.
We use MUCH only with uncountable nouns.

Let’s look at this in more detail.

MANY – countable nouns

We use many only with countable nouns. Here are several situations with examples in which we use MANY:

Affirmative / positive sentences

In an affirmative sentence, MANY means “a large number of” a countable noun. We put the noun in the plural form.

Examples:

There are many flowers in the garden.
I have many cars.

Important
It is more common and better to use “a lot of” or “lots of” to describe a large quantity in an affirmative sentence.

Examples:

There are a lot of flowers in the garden.
I have lots of cars.

Negative sentences

In a negative sentence, “not many” means “few” or “a small number of” a countable noun. The noun is in the plural form.

Examples:

There aren’t many raspberries on the plate.
There are not many eggs in the fridge.

Questions

In a question, we use “MANY” to ask about the number or quantity of a countable noun (in the plural form).
The question “How many….?” specifically asks for the number of units of a countable noun.

Examples:

How many televisions do you have?
How many students are there in your class?
Are there many jobs in London?

MUCH – uncountable nouns

We use “MUCH” only with uncountable nouns. Here are several situations with examples in which we use MUCH:

Affirmative / positive sentences

In an affirmative sentence, MUCH means “a large quantity/amount of” an uncountable noun. Uncountable nouns are always in the singular form.

Examples:

There is much water.
There is much soup.

It is more common and better to use “a lot of” or “lots of” to describe a large quantity of something in an affirmative sentence.

Examples:

There is a lot of water.
There is lots of soup.

Negative sentences

In a negative sentence, “not much” means “little” or “a small amount of” an uncountable noun. The noun is in the singular form.

Examples:

He doesn’t have much hair.
There is not much wine.
I don’t have much money.

Questions

In a question, we use MUCH to ask about the amount or quantity of an uncountable noun (in the singular form).
The question “How much ?” specifically asks about the quantity of an uncountable noun.

Examples:

How much rice do we need?
How much time does it take to drive to London?
How much money do you earn?

There are several questions with “how much” regarding money and the value of things.

Examples:

How much money does she have?
How much does it cost?
How much is it? (What is its price?)
How much do you want for it? (What is the price you are selling it at?”)

Common mistakes with MUCH and MANY

We do NOT use MUCH with countable nouns:
There are much chairs in the kitchen.

We do NOT use MANY with uncountable nouns:
There isn’t many water in the bottle.

Other lessons

Countable and uncountable nouns
SOME and ANY – Determiners
Plural forms of irregular nouns
How to express change in English

Video lesson