For large
quantities
|
Countable |
Uncountable |
| + |
a lot/ lots of |
a lot/ lots of |
| - |
(not) many |
(not) much |
| ? |
How many ...? |
How much ... ? |
a lot of luck, a lot of people,
lots of time, lots of books,
plenty
of money, plenty of ideas.
For small quantities
|
Countable |
Uncountable |
| + |
a few |
a little |
| + |
few |
little |
| + |
only a few |
only a little |
| + |
very few |
very little |
A
little, a few are positive ideas. A small but enough.
Little, few are negative ideas. Not
enough.
Only and very have a negative meaning too.
EXAMPLES:
I've got a lot books, but I haven't got
many CDs and I've only got a few
tapes.
They drank a lot of wine, not much
beer, and very little lemonade.
How much
coke did they drink?
Where there many people?
I last saw Tom a
few days ago.
After Steve tasted the soup, he added a little salt to
it.
I don't like a lot of salt on my food. I add little salt
to my food.
Driving downtown to the stadium for the baseball game was easy.
We got there quickly because there was little traffic.
I was
hungry, so I ate a few nuts.
He's a lucky little boy.
Because his parents have taken good care of him, he has had few
problems in his young life.
To say there is more than you
need
,use:
| too + adjective |
| too much + U nouns |
| too many + C nouns |
To say
there is all that you need,use:
| adjective + enough + noun |
EXAMPLES:
My house is very
big.
My house is too big.
Have you got
enough money?
The table isn't big enough
for six people.
Some quantifiers can only be used with singular count nouns.
| one |
person |
| each |
manager |
| every |
employee |
Some quantifiers can only be used with
plural count nouns.
| two |
problems |
| a few |
managers |
| many |
young people |
| a couple of |
employees |
| a number of |
businesses |
| a majority of |
professionals |
| both |
companies |
| several |
women |
Some quantifiers can only be used with
non-count nouns.
| a little |
conformity |
| less |
productivity |
| much |
choice |
| not as much |
satisfaction |
| a greate deal of |
interest |
Some quantifiers can be used with both
count and non-count nouns.
| no |
choice |
people |
| some/ any |
conformity |
employees |
| a lot of/ lots of |
individuality |
companies |
| a thrid of |
the money |
the companies |
| plenty of |
satisfaction |
businesses |
| most |
dissatisfaction |
managers |
| all |
innovation |
young people |
| more |
interest |
countries |
