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Many - much and locutions - English lesson

1) When to use MUCH or MANY. (meaning A LOT, they express a big quantity):

MUCH + uncountable:  quickly, and putting it in simple terms, uncountables cannot be "counted".

- They can't be put in the plural. The verb is ALWAYS IN THE SINGULAR.

- They can't be preceded by a number (cardinal : one, two, three... etc.) or ordinal : (first, second, third ...), by 'few/ a few/ many',or by the indefinite article 'a/ an'.

- They can be preceded by 'some, any, no', by 'little', 'a little', much, this/ that ( but not by 'these/  those'  which indicate plurals).

To be more precise, we should use 'a lot of' or 'a piece of'... or omit the indefinite article.

- cotton, iron, gold, velvet, chocolate, butter,  beer,  tea, wine, business, work, swimming, housing...  

- furniture, luggage (in British English)/ baggage (in American English).

- a set of abstract  things: corresponding to plurals in French:   

- information/ advice/ progress/ news/ knowledge/ evidence/ nonsense/ trouble, etc.

- Not much chocolate/ much/ a lot of work/ much furniture/ much evidence/                                                          

MANY accompanies a countable noun (in the plural) : countables can be «counted» and there are quite a lot of them...

- They are used in the singular or in the plural. 

- They can be preceded by a number (cardinal or ordinal), by 'many', 'few', 'a few', 'several', 'these' and 'those', 'a' or 'an' ...

- cats/ dogs/ students / tables / cups/ ....

Some words are sometimes countables, and sometimes uncountables : (cf test 105884  test . The test following this lesson won't deal with these "changing words"... 

2)   Some phrases are formed with MUCH and MANY... (They follow the same rules...)

a)   HOW MUCH + singular / HOW MANY + plural= questioning about a quantity. 

-  How much butter do you eat a week ?

-  How many books can he carry alone ?

b)   As much + singular... as ... // as many + plural... as = showing equality between two elements. 

-  I don't have as much free time as I'd like to.

-  He'll have as many shares as the other investors...

c)   So much + singular... that ...// so many +plural... that = so much so that...

- There's so much inflation in this country that the whole population is affected.

-  He wants so many presents for Xmas that I don't know what to buy...

d)  Too much + singular // too many + plural = Too many/ much ... (an excessive quantity)

- He has too much work and should have assistants to help him.

- I have too many problems to solve now...

e)   TWICE/ THREE TIMES / FOUR TIMES as much +uncountable as... /// TWICE/ THREE TIMES/ FOUR TIMES as many +countable... as... 

         -  He earns twice as much money as his wife.

       - There are ten times as many students now as there were in our days...

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1. 'I’m sorry I don’t have too many informationsmuch informationa lot of informationsmany informationsI don't know to give about the event.I’ll know more tomorrow.'



2. There are so much peoplehow many peopletoo much peoplehow much peopleso many peopleI don't know standing in the line before me that I don’t think I’ll manage to get in.



3. 'You’re making so many noisehow much noisetoo much noiseI don't know... Stop it now, or I’ll send you to bed.'



4. 'Don’t worry... You’ll get as much timeso many timesso much timeas many timeI don't know to do this work as you’ll need. '



5. There’s so many unemploymentsso much unemploymenttoo much unemploymentI don't know in that area that he’ll have to leave it if he wants to find a job.



6. This company has twice as much employeestwice more employeestwice as many employeesI don't know now as when it started business.



7. She drinks three times as many coffees thanthree times as much coffee asthree times more coffee thanI don't know would be reasonable. It’s bad for her health.



8. ' Too many luggagesAs much luggageHow much luggageSo much luggageI don't know does he have? ' ' Just one bag and his laptop. He should be able to carry it alone.'



9. Our teacher gave us too many exercisesso many exercisetoo much exercisehow many exercisesI don't know and I won’t have enough time to do all of them.



10. There’s too much furniturehow many furnitureshow much furnitureI don't know in this very small room and we can hardly move.