Quantifiers - Amount, Number, Little, Less, Few, Fewer, etc.| English Grammar | B1-Intermediate

[Music]

Hello and welcome everyone to this lesson  where we're going to answer a new question  

I have received and the question is from Karim.  He says: I hear a lot of native speakers say  

'amount of people' instead of 'number of people'  and 'less people' instead of 'fewer people'. Are  

these correct? So, the question brings us to the  topic of quantifiers, like 'amount' and 'less',  

and uncountable-uncountable nouns, in this case:  people. So, let's do a quick review of all of  

these points starting with quantifiers with  countable and uncountable nouns. So, I've made  

a little list here for you so you can see very  clearly which ones you can use with which group.  

As you can see, for countable nouns, these are  the words: many, few, a few, fewer - that's the  

comparative - fewest (superlative), and then some  expressions, like 'several' and 'a number of'. For  

uncountable nouns, the equivalent words are: much,  little, a little, less - the comparative form  

of little - least - the super relative form of  little - and then the expressions you can use are:  

a quantity of and an amount of. And then there are  some words, thankfully, that can be used for both,  

for example: a lot of and lots of can be used both  for countable and uncountable nouns. And negative  

expressions, like: no, any, none + some, enough.  And then the comparative and superlative forms  

are: more and most, and also the words 'half'  and 'all'. So, I think this is a good kind of  

table to have in mind when you need to decide  which quantifiers to use with each group. So,  

that's one part of the question Karim asked.  Now the other question, therefore is 'people'.  

Is that a countable noun or an uncountable noun?  Because, of course, when we talk about a countable  

noun, we expect to be able to put an 's' on it,  right? Countable: one something - two somethings:  

one book - two books, three books. one student  - two students - three students. So 'people'? Is  

that one or many? Well, this brings us to the  tricky 'countable and and uncountable nouns',  

and for countable nouns, what makes them tricky  is the irregular plurals. And 'people' is one of  

them. 'people' is the plural form of 'person'. The  word 'persons' exists, but it's used uncommonly  

in very kind of technical situations. The real,  the everyday, plural of 'person' is 'people'. And  

the same with words, plural words like: men,  women, children, teeth, feet, sheep, fish,  

and series. Again, this list is not comprehensive,  but these are the ones that I hear most mistakes  

with. That's why they are in my list here.  So therefore, and then of course, you have  

the uncountable nouns. I've listed them here as  well, and they're tricky because they're usually  

countable in other languages. So coming from your  own language, you want to put 's' on information;  

you want to make it plural: one information - two  informations. English has these idiosyncrasies,  

and again, these words that I have listed here are  the common ones that trap you or catch you out.  

So: money, news, information, advice, equipment,  furniture, feedback, software, and hardware.  

Remember these ones. So therefore, we already  know the answer to Karim's question. 'people' is  

plural; it's countable, and therefore we must use  'number of people' and 'fewer people'. That's the  

grammatically correct answer. Therefore, 'amount  of people' and 'less people' are grammatically  

wrong. However - there's always a however - this  has become a very very common mistake with native  

speakers. I think it started in the States again,  but now all the British people around me also use  

'amount' and 'less' also for countable nouns, and  when a common native speaker [mistake} becomes so  

widespread, it becomes acceptable, but it  only becomes acceptable and not a mistake  

anymore in informal spoken English. My advice  would be for your own usage to keep it to the  

grammatically correct version. Use 'number' and  'few' with countable nouns, but don't be surprised  

or think Oh, I've got it all wrong.' if you hear a  native speaker saying 'amount of people', 'amount  

of children', 'amount of books', whatever, or  less, less problems: I've had less problems today.  

Really, as you can see, when I say that, I kind of  cringe because it sounds so grammatically wrong,  

but it's now acceptable. Now, so Karim's question  has been answered but I thought while we're on the  

topic of quantifiers, I would mention two common  mistakes that non-native speakers, like myself,  

make or are likely to make. A first one, a very  important one that I keep talking about in many  

lessons, is mixing up the words 'few' and 'a  few', and 'little' and 'a little'. So, remember  

that 'few' and 'a few' are for countable nouns,  and 'little' and 'a little' are for uncountable  

nouns. Now, 'few' and 'little without the 'a'  mean 'a small number or amount of', 'almost none',  

'not enough', so a negative idea. For example, the  sentence I've chosen here for you as an example  

is: He has little patience, almost no patience, he  won't wait until tomorrow: negative sense, whereas  

just adding that little 'a': a few, a little  changes it completely. Now, 'a few' and 'a little'  

mean a reasonable number or amount of something:  some, enough. There is a positive idea here,  

for example in the same context we can say: Oh, I  know he has little patience, but can you persuade  

him to have a little patience? Make it positive.  Now, of course the reason that this mistake is  

so common that I hear it again and again from  many many of my students is that phonetically  

the difference is so small: few - a few. How  do we make it clear when we speak or catch it  

when someone else is using them. So, my two tips  here would be for the one that doesn't have the  

'a' sound: few and little, you can add adverbs to  make it clear that there is no 'a'; that there is  

something else, and the adverbs that you can add  are: very, so, and too. For example, I would say:  

He has very little patience; he won't wait. Or: He  has so little patience; he won't wait. Or: He has  

too little patience; he won't wait. 'very' would  be the most common one to use in this context,  

to make it very clear that you are using that  negative idea: almost none. Now for the other one,  

obviously, we need to try and make that little  sound 'a' stand out, and what does that? Of  

course, if you're writing, it's clear you've  got the 'a' there, but when you're speaking,  

the way to do it is to use the phonetic link. So,  connect that little 'a' Schwa sound to the word  

before it, to the consonant before it. So: Can  you persuade him to have a little patience? So,  

NOT have - a - little: that's less it's more  difficult to hear than connecting it to the word,  

to the consonant sound before it. And so that's  that common mistake 1. I would really recommend  

that you pay attention to it because if you don't,  you will either misunderstand the person or be  

misunderstood. The other one is not as bad,  but I thought I'd mention it because I hear  

sometimes you make this mistake, or some of the  students make this mistakes, and that's using the  

wrong adverb with the comparatives. So, we've just  seen that with 'little', 'few', and also 'much',  

'many' - the actual quantifiers - we can add the  adverbs: very, so, and too. But, don't add these  

to the comparative form, so don't say: very less.  That sounds really strange. So, if you want to  

quantify those comparatives, which you can do,  then you need to use different words. So, I've  

listed them here for you. We can use for less and  more with the uncountable nouns like 'patience',  

you can use 'much': so much less patience, or  a lot more patience. 'a little' if you want to  

reduce the amount: a little less patience, and  a very good word is 'far'. It's short and easy  

and that really modifies the comparative. And then  with the countable nouns, like 'questions', use a  

lot, far, or slightly. So again, these are things  you need to probably review to remember, but it's  

so that you're aware of potential mistakes. Now  the next thing is not a mistake, but it's about  

the usage of these words, usage of quantifiers.  In spoken English, It's common to use 'much' and  

'many' in questions and negative sentences,  for example: Does he have much patience? Or:  

Does he have many questions? And negative: No, he  doesn't have much patience or many questions. And  

then in the affirmative sentences, we tend to use  the the other ones that are for both countable  

and uncountable nouns, which were 'lots of', 'a  lot of', or 'loads of'. Now, grammatically, it's  

not wrong to use one or the other for positive or  negative or question. It's just daily usage. Now,  

in formal English, you will see probably 'much'  and 'many' even in the affirmative sentences,  

for example: Much debate and many controversies  surround this topic. That sounds okay;  

it's acceptable. Right so, that's about that.  That's the end of what I have to say about  

quantifiers. Now because quantifiers are a subtype  of determiners, I thought I just briefly mention  

other determiners and which ones can be used with  countable nouns and which ones can be used with  

uncountable nouns. So, countable nouns are easy;  everything can be used with them except 'much' and  

'little'. So you can use: the, other, this, and  that with both countable and uncountable nouns.  

But the following cannot be used with uncountable  nouns, and it makes sense. These are: a,  

another, either, neither, each, every, these, and  those. And again, it makes sense because 'these'  

and 'those' are plurals of 'this' and 'that',  so we can't use them with uncountable nouns,  

and of course, the others are separating several  things from each other. So, the last thing I'd  

like to mention then is that sometimes you may  want to use one of these determiners: a, an,  

every each with an uncountable noun. What can  we do? Can we do anything? Yes, you have to  

find a suitable counting unit to change that  uncountable noun into a countable noun. So,  

what I've done, the last slide, is for the tricky  uncountable nouns that we saw in a previous list,  

I've listed here the unit word you can use for  them. So, for 'money', you can use 'sum of'. You  

can't say 'a money', but you can say 'a sum of  money' if you want to make it one unit. News:  

we've got three options here: piece of, 'piece  of' is the most common one to use as a unit word  

or unit expression, but with 'news', you can also  use the words 'item' and 'story', so you can say:  

another news story, or another news item. Nice  ones! For 'information', 'advice', 'equipment',  

and 'furniture', your only choice is 'a piece  of'. So, you can say: a piece of information,  

every piece of advice, each piece of equipment,  either piece of furniture if you really need to  

count. 'feedback': I've not heard any unit  word that would make 'feedback' countable,  

so just use the quantifiers that are appropriate  for uncountable nouns, like 'some feedback',  

'much' if it's a negative sentence: much  feedback, little or a little. Keep it  

to those that can be used for uncountable or  both. Finally, with 'software' and 'hardware',  

again you can use 'a piece of', but there is also  a special word for these, which is 'package'. So,  

you can say: these software packages or those  pieces of hardware. Right, that's the end of this  

lesson this presentation on countable- uncountable  nouns and which quantifiers we can use with each  

group. I hope it's going to be a bit helpful for  you if you can refer - that's why I have created  

three lists so you can refer to them if you are  in doubt. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.  

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