Learn English: MUCH & MANY

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this grammar video on how to use "much" and "many" in

English.

So, I will give you the basic grammar functions of "much" and "many", including some of

the uses that you might not be familiar with or maybe your teachers haven't told you about

in your classes.

So, usually, you know, you probably know that you use "much" with uncountable nouns, so

nouns you can't count.

For example, "juice", "salt", "love", "electricity".

You can't say "one salt, two salts", "one juice, two juices", it's a liquid, right?

And "many" is used with plural nouns, things you can count.

So, "siblings", your brothers and sisters, "books", "classes", "tables", "chairs", "buildings",

"people", anything you can count, you use "many" with.

Now "informally", "usually", and notice I underlined the word "usually", "much" and

"many" are used in negative sentences or questions.

Now, one of the things I mentioned at the start of this video is that I will teach you

some of the uses that maybe you haven't heard in your classes, because there are many teachers

who teach that you can only use "much" and "many" in negative sentences or questions,

and that is simply not true.

And in this video, I will show you some situations where you can use "much" and "many" in affirmative

sentences, but however, it is true that usually we keep them to negatives and questions.

So, let's start with the basics.

We have four examples.

Let's just read them and talk about them.

Number one, "He doesn't have much patience."

So, we have a negative sentence here, present simple, "He doesn't have much patience."

So, it doesn't have a lot, doesn't have enough patience or, you know, the ability to wait

for things.

"How many cups of coffee have you had today?"

So, cups are countable, one cup, two cups.

"How many cups of coffee have you had today?"

Very important to note, when you are asking a "how much" or "how many" question, you put

the noun after "how much" or "how many", so "How many cups?"

And here, the next question, "How much studying should I do to prepare for the IELTS?"

So, you can't say one studying, two studyings, right?

So, "studying" here is a gerund, it's a verbal noun.

It's a noun, basically, in this situation, so "How much studying should I do to prepare

for the IELTS?"

So, again, notice, "how much", "how many", "how many cups", "how much studying", "how

much", "how many" plus the noun, okay?

And here we have "uncountable", "countable", "uncountable", and finally, "for symmetry"

and to make it even, we have a countable noun, so we say, "We haven't been to many concerts

this year."

So, "We haven't been", negative sentence, "We haven't been to many concerts this year."

Countable, plural, one concert, two concerts, "We haven't been to many concerts this year."

So, so far, we have the basics, and I know this is what you are usually taught in Lesson

1 of How Much, How Many, so just to review, "much" is used with uncountable nouns, "many"

is used with plural count nouns, and formally, usually, "much" and "many" are used in negative

sentences or questions.

You okay so far?

Okay, let's go to the next board.

Now, we're going to look at one of the most common mistakes people make with "much" and

"many" and the word "of", so here is the structure, and we introduced this structure in the first

half of the lesson, "much", "many" plus noun without "of", so the rule here is we don't

use "much", "many" or "much" or "many" "of" if there isn't a determiner before the noun.

Okay, it sounds a little confusing, but we'll see it in a moment.

First, what is a determiner?

A determiner is a word that points to a noun, so for example, "my", "the", "this", "her",

for example, "my book", "the information", "this cat", "her father", okay?

So these are determiners, they are words that point to a noun, so such as possessive adjectives

or articles, okay?

Alright, so don't use, if you don't see "my", "the", "his", "her", "my father's", "Derek's",

you know, if you don't see a determiner, don't use "much" or "many of", so similar to the

first half of the lesson, "She doesn't get much sleep", not "She doesn't get much of

sleep", this is incorrect, okay?

Much sleep, there is no determiner, alright?

So the noun here is "sleep", there is no determiner, there is no "my", "his", "her", "the", "a",

"an", nothing, no determiner before sleep, so you don't use "of", no "of", "She doesn't

get much sleep".

Next, "How many books does he own?", alright, "How many books", plural, "does he own?"

No determiner, so no "of", right, not "How many of books does he own?", but "How many

books does he own?", "Does he possess?", "Does he have?"

Okay, so when do we use "much" or "many of"?

Well, when there is a determiner before the noun, so "much" or "many of" plus a determiner

like "my", "the", "this", "her", "his" plus the noun.

So example, "I don't know many of his cousins", okay, "I am not familiar with many of his

cousins", the people in his family, right?

So here you have a determiner before the plural noun, negative sentence, "I don't know many

of his cousins".

"How much of this story is true?", "How much of", determiner, "this story that we're reading

right now is true", okay?

So remember, only use "much of" or "many of" if there is a determiner, a word like "the",

"my", "his", "her", "Jack's", "Elaine's", you know, a word that points to the noun, before

the noun.

If there is no determiner, don't use "of", okay?

Just keep it "much" or "many" plus noun, right?

Much sleep, many books, okay?

Much patience, many tables, many chairs, much knowledge.

So far so good?

All right, let's continue.

Okay, now I want to look at some more rules, some more situations, specifically using "much"

or "many" without a noun.

So it is possible to use "much" or "many" by themselves if the meaning, if the noun is

understood or if the noun is implied, is implicit.

So it's okay if the meaning is clear.

For example, "You don't eat much", okay?

So you don't need anything after "much" because people understand that, you know, you eat

food.

So if you comment about your friend and you say, "You don't eat much", you know, the meaning

is "You don't eat much food", okay?

You can say, "You don't eat much."

"They haven't taken many."

Now this depends on the context, "many" what?

So if your friend asks, "Have they taken a lot of pictures?", "No, they haven't taken

many."

So you don't have to use the noun in this case because it's clear from the previous

sentence from the context that they haven't taken many pictures.

Or flyers, flyers are paper advertisements that people give to promote their business

or a service, for example.

So "They haven't taken many flyers", "They haven't taken many pictures", or just "They

haven't taken many", okay?

Now, before I said you can use "much" and "many" in affirmative sentences, let's look

at some situations where this is possible.

So, one way, one situation is if you use "so much" or "so many", "as much" or "as many",

"too much" or "too many", you can use these phrases in affirmative sentences with "much"

or "many".

So, for example, "There were so many people there", so "so" before "much", before "many",

you use this to intensify the word, to intensify the sentence.

How many?

"So many", a lot, okay?

"I did as much work as I could."

So, this is a comparative where something is equal, or "as much as I could", "I did

a lot of work", "as much work as I could", so "work" is non-count, uncountable, so you

use "much".

"I've been eating too much lately", so "too" before "much" or "many" means there is something

which is excessive, so you do something, or did something, or have done something in excess,

okay?

So, "too many people", "There are too many people here", "I've been eating too much lately",

too much food, food is uncountable, right?

Okay, next, affirmative informal.

So, if you say, "Alex, I want to use'many', I want to use'much' in affirmative sentences

in a casual, informal way", and I will say, "Okay, just make sure you use it, you know,

before, after'so', after 'as', after 'to'", totally fine, common, informal sentences.

However, if you want to, you know, make informal sentences with "much" or "many", and use "much"

or "many" by themselves, you could, but it doesn't sound informal, so instead of "much"

or "many" in informal affirmative sentences, use "a lot", "a lot of", "lots", and other

quantifiers instead.

So, for example, "How many ties do you own?"

Now, a tie is something, you know, you can wear with a dress shirt, I don't have a dress

shirt today, I have a Castlevania on Netflix shirt, watch this show, I want season three,

you can help me by watching it, Castlevania on Netflix.

Now, I lost my place because I'm thinking about Castlevania and how great season one

and two were.

So, "How many ties do you own?"

"I own a lot."

Now, you could say, like, "I own many", but it sounds very formal, so if you want to sound

natural, informal, change "many" in this context to, you know, "a lot", "I own a lot", okay?

"She has plenty of experience", "plenty of", you could say "much", "experience" is uncountable

in this context, like "work experience", so you could say, "She has much experience",

but it sounds very formal, okay?

If you want to speak on the street with people, I would recommend using "a lot of experience",

"lots of experience", "plenty of experience" instead of "much" in this context.

Now, like I said, you can use "much" and "many" in affirmative sentences, but usually these

are reserved for formal sentences, formal contexts, such as news reports or speeches

or, you know, formal blog posts online.

So, here I have two examples.

"Many problems have arisen since the election."

Right?

That's an affirmative sentence, "many problems", okay?

That's fine, but you can tell it's a formal situation, a formal context.

Next, "Much has been said about climate change."

Mm-hmm.

It's much more formal, so if you want to use "much" and "many" in this way, you can reserve

it for an essay and just know the purpose of this board, really, is to let you know

you can use "much" and "many" in affirmative contexts.

You just need to be careful.

If you want to be safe, you know, use "so much", "so many", "no problem", "as much",

"as many", "no problem", "too much", "too many", "no problem", informal, affirmative,

a-okay.

However, if you want to say, you know, with "no so", "no as", "no to", use "a lot", use

"a lot of" for informal sentences in the affirmative, and save those affirmative "much" or "many"

sentences for formal contexts like essay writing, like news reports, and other similar formal

situations.

All right, are you still with me?

Yes?

Okay, one more to go.

So, to finish this video, I want to talk about how to use "much" as an adverb.

Now, an adverb can modify a verb, or an adjective, or even another adverb, so let's look at some

sentences of what I mean by using "much" as an adverb.

So, "Do you do much on weekends?"

"She's not doing much these days."

"She's much older than you."

"He played much better today."

So, here we have, "Do you do much", right, "on weekends", so you're modifying "do", right?

You're saying, "Do you do", okay, "Do I do what?

Do I do much?"

You're modifying the verb "do" with the adverb "much" here.

"She's not doing much", so same idea as the first sentence, except we have a present continuous.

"She's not doing much these days.

She's not doing a lot these days."

"She's much older than you."

So, you have "older", which is a comparative adjective.

You can put "much" before a comparative adjective, so "much older", "much taller", "much bigger",

okay, "much younger", whatever the comparative adjective is.

"He played much better today."

And again, a comparative, in this situation, like adverb, so "He played better", "He played

much better", okay?

So finally, in a formal context, you can use "much" before certain verbs that express preference

or enjoyment or some kind of like, all right?

So, "very", "very much", sorry, I was just reading the sentence, so first sentence, "I

very much appreciated your presence", so you can modify "much" with "very", right?

Or "I much appreciated your presence", the fact that you were there, the fact that you

were at, let's imagine a scenario, maybe you had a family funeral, and your friend came

to this funeral, and you said, "I very much appreciated", "I much appreciated your presence",

okay?

"I much prefer", "I much prefer the sequel to the original", so if you prefer the sequel

of a movie to an original, you can say, "I much prefer", okay, "I much prefer the sequel

to the original", so you have "much appreciate", "I much prefer", "We didn't much enjoy the

experience", okay, so you have the verb "enjoy" as well that you can use "much" before, so

"much prefer", "much enjoy", "much appreciate", "I very much liked the experience of making

this video for you guys", for example.

Okay, that's a lot to take in, and if you want to test your understanding of the material

we covered today about "much" and "many" using it in affirmative sentences, in negative sentences,

in questions, with count nouns, non-count nouns, I know it's a lot, but if you want

to test your understanding, make sure that you got it, re-watch the video, and then do

the quiz on www.engvid.com.

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