Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

Adjectives and adjectival phrases that describe quantity are shown below. Some can only go with countable nouns (friends, cups, people), and some can only go with uncountable nouns (sugar, tea, money, advice). The words in the middle column can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.

Only with
uncountable nouns
With uncountable
and countable nouns
Only with
countable nouns
How much? How much or How many? How many?
a little no/none a few
a bit (of) not any a number (of)
- some (any) several
a great deal of a lot of a large number of
a large amount of plenty of a great number of
- lots of -
+ noun

Note: much and many are used in negative and question forms.

Examples

  • How much money have you got?
  • How many cigarettes have you smoked?
  • There's not much sugar in the cupboard.
  • There weren't many people at the concert.

They are also used with too, (not) so, and (not) as :

There were too many people at the concert - we couldn't see the band.
It's a problem when there are so many people.
There's not so much work to do this week.

Much of, many of

When we use much or many before articles (a/an, the), demonstratives (this, that), possessives (my, your) or pronouns (him, them), we need to use of:

  • How much of this book is fact and how much is fiction?
  • Claude, the seventeenth-century French painter, spent much of his life in Italy.
  • Unfortunately, not many of the photographers were there.
  • How many of them can dance, sing and act?

In positive statements, we use a lot of:

Examples

  • I've got a lot of work this week.
  • There were a lot of people at the concert.

Much, many, a lot of in negative questions

When we use much and many in negative questions, we are usually expecting that a large quantity of something isn’t there. When we use a lot of and lots of in negative questions, we are usually expecting a large quantity of something.

Compare

Haven’t they sold many tickets?

(No, they haven’t.)

The speaker expects that they have sold a small quantity of tickets.

Haven’t they sold a lot of tickets? (or lots of)

(Yes, they have.)

The speaker expects that they have sold a large quantity of tickets.

Isn’t there much food left?

(No, there isn’t.)

The speaker expects that there is a small quantity of food left.

Isn’t there a lot of food left? (or lots of)

(Yes, there is.)

The speaker expects that there is a large quantity of food left.