Much, Many, and A Lot Of…
(Talking About Quantity)
“There Certainly Are FAR Too Many Assholes In The World. I Very-Much Support Them Getting Punched In The Face. In Fact, I Would REALLY Like That A Lot!!!”
ello again. Or should I say, “What’s Up?!” For today’s lesson on English Usage — we will be watching another video by a teacher from a previous lesson about about Greetings In English. But for today — we will be covering the topic of Quantifiers — and which ones to use according to the Nouns that they are referring to.
pecifically — we will be focusing on the quantifiers: Much, Many, and A Lot Of — and their usage with Countable and Un-Countable Nouns.
e refer to these words (and phrase) as “Quantifiers” because they determine the “Quantity” of something. It should also be noted that some teachers and a lot of English text-books will also call these, and other words & phrases like them as “Determiners”.
owever — the term “Determiner” is a useless, obtuse, and — what I refer to as a — “Throw-Away” grammatical term. This is because almost every type of word: Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Pronoun, etc. — is used to “Determine” something… Therefore — it is a stupid and useless term. In fact — you don’t even need to ever use the term “determiner”, as an English learner (unless it is in an English test). But it is good to know what OTHER teachers are talking about when THEY use that useless & stupid term 😉
Back To The Subject At Hand…
The Usage Of Much, Many, & A Lot Of…
For Countable Nouns — we use: “Many”
He Had Many Incredible Dance Moves!
(“Dance Moves” is a Countable Noun-Phrase — so we use “Many”)
For Un-Countable Nouns — we use: “Much”
She Kicked The Ball With Much Force!
(“Force” is an Un-Countable Noun — so we use “Much”)
So What About “A Lot Of…”?
We Can Use The Phrase “A Lot Of…” With Both Countable & Un-Countable Nouns
There Were A Lot Of Other Kids On The Ride With Young Anakin!
(“Kids” is a Countable Noun — But we can still use “A Lot Of”)
They Had A Lot Of Fun When They Went Bowling Together
(“Fun” is an Un-Countable Noun — But we can still use “A Lot Of”)
Now Enjoy The Video!
Please Note! — Although the information that shane gives in this video about using Much, Many, and A Lot Of… is really quite good — He starts off by saying that this is something that, “…a lot of people have trouble with…”. If you have read any of my other posts before — then you probably already know my feelings about saying stupid shit like this…
Even Though This May Be Generally True — the fault for something like this being “difficult” for the student is almost completely with the teacher for saying stupid shit like this before they even get to explaining it! They are literally MAKING it “difficult” in the mind of the student BEFORE they even give the student a chance to learn it!
And The Fact Of The Matter Is…
This Is Really Freakin’ Easy!!!…
(you will just have to practice before it becomes “second-nature”… But You Can Do It! And there is nothing difficult about practice)
Also…
Please Note — In the section of the video between 1:36 and 2:33 — the teacher gives many examples of the use of “Much” & “Many” while using a non-specific fake “foreign” accent.
I’m sure that when he does this — he probably gets a lot of laughs from his friends, and maybe even his students as well. But this is certainly not the most cultured or polite thing to do. If this part of the video offended you in any way — please don’t pay much attention to it. I’m sure he wasn’t really trying to make fun of anyone. He was just being stupid, and probably just doesn’t know any better… (I say this with confidence because I used to do the same thing when I was younger. Although people laughed — there is a good chance that they were laughing AT me… not WITH me.) 😉
And Finally — Although most of what he said was very good information. He made some mistakes when he was talking about money. This is probably because he was more focused on sounding like a foreigner, than he was on actually being grammatically correct.
When He Said: “Many 5 Dollar Canadian”
He Should Have Said: “Many Canadian 5 Dollar Bills”
When He Said: “Brazilian Money, 2”
He Should Have Said: “2 Brazilian Reais” or simply “2 Reais”
nd to close out this lesson — what he says about not using Much and Many in positive sentences is true — we do use A Lot Of more often — you should not purposely try to avoid using Much and Many. There is nothing wrong with using those words, if your use of them grammatically correct.
n fact — there are many situations wherein you will sound much more more intelligent by using “Much & Many” — rather than saying “A Lot Of”. That last sentence is the perfect example. If you replace “Much & Many” with A Lot Of, it sounds much less intelligent.
nd — if you are using these quantifiers with a Comparative Adjective with: “More” or “Less” — then those comparatives forms replace the word “Of” in the phrase “A Lot Of”. We do NOT say: “A Lot Of More” or “A Lot Of Less”. Instead, we simply say “A Lot More” or “A Lot Less”
And That’s That!…
Have An Excellent Day!
😉
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