Crown Academy of English

English lessons and resources




  • Home
  • Online English lessons
  • IELTS online course
  • Articles & lessons
    • Grammar & vocabulary lessons
    • IELTS preparation
    • British culture
    • List of all articles & lessons
  • About
  • Contact
Home > Articles > English lessons > MUCH and MANY – Determiners

MUCH and MANY – Determiners

7th October 2017 by Andrew 2 Comments

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:

flowers
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:

raspberries
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:

television
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:

high water
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:

bald man
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:

rice

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:

girl with money
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. wrong

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

 

Other lessons

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

 

Video lesson

Online English lessons and conversation

Comments

  1. Aditi chaprana says

    13th August 2021 at 2:18 pm

    Hy plese find vhgdkbfrdou

    Reply
  2. Raj chetry says

    7th January 2022 at 2:07 pm

    Nice questions and answers nice

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

English grammar ebook

English grammar ebook

Online English lessons

English lessons with a native English teacher
IELTS online course

Recent articles & lessons

doctor

The difference between practice and practise

4th June 2019

peas on spoon

“a little” and “a few ” to describe quantity

30th May 2019

graduation

Difference between “finally”, “at last”, “lastly” and “in the end”

22nd May 2019

maths symbols

Maths symbols and operations – English vocabulary

8th May 2019

people meeting

BACK as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb

29th April 2019

Online English lessons

English lessons with a native English teacher

IELTS tips

IELTS complete guide

IELTS complete guide (WITH EXAMPLE QUESTIONS)

1st September 2017

Bar Chart

Advice for IELTS writing task 1

19th July 2017

Smiling girl

IELTS speaking advice

18th July 2017

IELTS student Tatjana

How to pass the IELTS with a band 8

9th May 2017

IELTS student Andreea

How to get a band 8 in the IELTS

9th May 2017

Ad





Affiliate disclosure

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Additionally, CrownAcademyEnglish.com participates in other affiliate programs, and we sometimes get a commission from purchases made through our links.

Follow us on social media

Crown Academy of English on YouTube Crown Academy of English on Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Crown Academy of English · Privacy Policy