Att välja rätt quantifier
För att besvara frågorna How much? och How many? kan vissa quantifiers användas tillsammans med räknebara substantiv (friends, cups, people), andra tillsammans med icke räknebara substantiv (sugar, tea, money) och ytterligeare andra med alla typer av substantiv.
| Endast med delbara substantiv | Med alla typer av substantiv | Endast med odelbara substantiv |
|---|---|---|
| a little | no, none, not any | a few |
| a bit of | some | a number of |
| any | several | |
| a great deal of | a lot of, lots of | a great number of |
| a large amount of | plenty of | a large number of |
Exempel
- Would you like some tea and a few cookies?
- I always put a little milk and some carrots in my soup.
- He has several apples. I don't have any fruit at all.
- She has plenty of clothes for the winter.
- I recieved a large amount of feedback from my survey.
Att använda "Much" och "Many"
Much och many används huvudsakligen i frågande och nekande meningar. De används också i affirmative and negative sentences i kombination med too och so. Notera: ordet many kan användas ensamt i affirmative meningar, medan ordet much inte kan det. Much ersätts i affirmative meningar med a lot of eller lots of (dessa uttryck kan även ersätta many).
| Delbara substantiv | Odelbara substantiv |
|---|---|
| How much sugar do you have? | How many people came to the concert? |
| There's not much sugar at the store. | Not many people came to the concert. |
| I have too much sugar at home. | There were too many people at the concert. |
| I don't know what to do with so much sugar. | It's a problem when there are so many people. |
| I wish there was not so much sugar here. | There were not so many people last year. |
| There is a lot of sugar in candy. | There are many people who want to come. = There are a lot of people who want to come. |