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Much or Many?

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We use use much and many in questions and negative sentences. They both show an amount of something.

Use 'Much' with uncountable nouns

We use much with singular nouns.

Question: "How much petrol is in the car?"
Negative clause: "We don't have much time left."

Use 'Many' with countable nouns

We use many with plural nouns

Question: "How many people were at the meeting?"
Negative clause: "Not many of the students understood the lesson."

Use a 'A lot of' and 'Lots of' with both

Both mean a large amount. We use them with countable and uncountable nouns. A lot of is a little more formal sounding than lots of.

Countable:

"A lot of people work here."
"Lots of people work here."

Uncountable:

"There was a lot of snow last night."
"There was lots of snow last night."

Now decide which word is needed to complete these sentences:

  • 1 - How ___ kittens did your cat have?



  • 2 - There are not ___ dishes left to clean.



  • 3 - Why was there so ___ smoke in the room?



  • 4 - There were so ___ people on the bus I got off and walked.



  • 5 - We don't see ___ birds in winter.



  • 6 - How ___ money should I save?



  • 7 - We couldn't think of ___ good ideas.



  • 8 - Does this TV use ___ electricity?



  • 9 - Is our teacher going to give us ___ homework?



  • 10 - There's ___ information to remember.