Non-count and count quantifiers

Quantifiers are words that come before nouns in order to indicate the amount or how much of a non-count noun is being stated, or the number or how many of a count noun is being stated. Remember that amount and how much refer to non-count nouns while number and how many refer to count nouns. Let's look at a few examples.

Non-count nouns

"The students have a tremendous amount of work to complete before the end of the year."
"His fuel gauge was not working, so he didn't know how much gas was left."

Count nouns

"The number of people in the club exceeded the maximum occupancy."
"I don't remember how many times I have been to New York."

There are some quantifiers which are used only with non-count nouns. Here are a few examples: a little, not much, little, or too much.

There are some quantifiers which are used only with count nouns. Here are a few examples: few, many, several, or a couple of.

There are some quantifiers which are used with both non-count and count nouns. Here are a few examples: some, a lot of, plenty of, or enough.

Give these exercises a try.

By Thomas Williams
Teacher at EC San Diego English School

'Get' idioms

• 1. There wasn't ___ traffic this morning.
  
  many
  much
  a few
  
  
• 2. There was ___ information given during the class.
  
  many
  much
  none
  
  
• 3. The ___ of advice he received was well worth the cost.
  
  amount
  number
  much
  
  
• 4. How ___ people will be coming to the party tonight?
  
  much
  lots
  many
  
  
• 5. Unfortunately, she doesn't have very ___ friends
  
  much
  a lot of
  many
  
  
• 6. I bought some milk, some apples, and a ___ bananas.
  
  little
  lots of
  few
  
  
• 7. There are a lot of movies I like, but ___ that I would see twice.
  
  little
  plenty
  few
  
  
• 8. We just bought a new house with ___ furniture included.
  
  plenty of
  few
  several
  
  
• 9. The ___ of students at the school has increased.
  
  number
  amount
  some
  
  
• 10. There is ___ water on the floor because of the storm last night
  
  a little
  lots
  few