Learn English: MUCH & MANY

hey everyone I'm Alex thanks for clicking and welcome to this grammar video on how to use much and many in English so I will give you the basic grammar functions of much and many including some of the uses that you might not be familiar with or maybe your teachers haven't told you about in your classes so usually you know you probably know that you use much with uncountable nouns so nouns you can't count for example juice salt love electricity you can't say one salt two salts one juice two juices it's a liquid right and many is used with plural nouns things you can count so siblings your brothers and sisters books classes tables chairs buildings people anything you can count you use many with now informally usually and notice I underlined the word usually much and many are used in negative sentences or questions now one of the things I mentioned at the start of this video is that I will teach you some of the uses that maybe you haven't heard in your classes because there are many teachers who teach that you can only use much and many and negative sentences or questions and that is simply not true and in this video I will show you some situations where you can use much and many in affirmative sentences but however it is true that usually we keep them two negatives and questions so let's start with the basics we have four examples let's just read them and talk about them number one he doesn't have much so we have a negative sentence here present simple he doesn't have much patience so it doesn't have a lot doesn't have enough patience or you know the ability to wait for things how many cups of coffee have you had today so cups are countable one cup two cups how many cups of coffee have you had today very important to note when you are asking a how much or how many question you put the noun after how much or how many so how many cups and here the next question how much studying should I do to prepare for the IELTS so you can't say one studying to studying's alright so studying here is a gerund it's a verbal noun it's it's it's a noun basically in this situation so how much studying should I do to prepare for the IELTS so again notice how much how many how many cups how much studying how much how many plus the noun okay and here we have uncountable countable uncountable and finally for symmetry and to make it even we have a countable noun so we say we haven't been to many concerts this year so we haven't been negative sentence we haven't been to many concerts this year countable plural one concert two concerts we haven't been to many concerts this year so so far we have the basics and I know this is what you are usually taught in the lesson one of how much how many so just to review much is used with uncountable nouns many is used with plural count nouns informally use much and many are used in negative sentences or questions here ok so far ok let's go to the next board now we're going to look at one of the most common mistakes people make with much and many and the word of so here is the structure and we introduced this structure in the first half of the lesson much many plus noun without of so the rule here is we don't use much many or much or many of if there isn't a determiner before the noun okay it sounds a little confusing but we'll see it in a moment first what is a determiner a determiner is a word that points to a noun so for example my the this her for example my book the information this cat her father okay so these are determiners they are words that point to a noun so such as possessive adjectives or articles okay alright so don't use if you don't see my the his her my father's Derek's you know if you don't see a determiner don't use much or many of so similar to the first half of the the lesson she doesn't get much sleep not she doesn't get much of sleep this is incorrect okay much sleep there is no determiner alright so the noun here is sleep there's no determiner there's no my his her the and nothing no determiner before sleep so you don't use of know of she doesn't get much sleep next how many books does he own all right how many books plural does he own no determiner so no of right not how many of books does he own but how many books does he own does he possess does he have okay so when do we use much or many of well when there is a determiner before the noun so much or many of Plus a determiner like my the this her/his plus the noun so example I don't know many of his cousins okay I am not familiar with many of his cousins the people in his family right so here you have a determiner before the plural noun negative sentence I don't know many of his cousins how much of this story is true how much of determiner this story that we're reading right now is true okay so remember only use much of or many of if there is a determiner a word like the my is her Jax Elaine's you know a word that points to the noun before the noun if there is no determiner don't use of okay just keep it much or many plus now right much sleep many books okay much patience many tables many chairs much knowledge so far so good alright let's continue okay now I want to look at some more rules some more situations specifically using much or many without a noun so it is possible to use much or man by themselves if the meaning if the noun is understood or if the noun is implied is implicit so it's okay if the meaning is clear for example you don't eat much okay so you don't need anything after much because people understand that you know you eat food so if you comment about your friend and you say you don't eat much you know the meaning is you don't eat much food okay you can say you don't eat much hey they haven't taken many now this depends on the context many what so if your friend asks have they taken a lot of pictures no they haven't taken many so you don't have to use the the noun in this case because it's clear from the previous sentence from the context that they haven't taken many pictures or flyers Flyers are paper advertisements that people give to promote their business or a service for example so they haven't taken many flyers they haven't taken many pictures or just they haven't taken many okay now before I said you can use much and many in affirmative sentences let's look at some situations where this is possible so one way one situation is if you use so much or so many as much or as many too much or too many you can use these phrases in affirmative sentences with much or many so for example there were so many people there so so before much before many you use this to intensify the word to intensify the son since how many so many a lot okay I did as much work as I could so this is a comparative where something as equal or as much as I could I did a lot of work as much work as I could so work is non-count uncountable so you use much hmm I've been eating too much lately so too before much or many means there is something which is excessive so you do something or did something or have done something in excess okay so to many people there are too many people here I've been eating too much lately too much food food is uncountable right okay next affirmative informal so if you say Alex I want to use many I want to use much in affirmative sentences in a casual informal way and I will say okay just make sure you use it you know before after so after as after - totally fine common informal sentences however if you want to you know make informal sentences with much or many and use much or many by themselves you could but it doesn't sound informal so instead of much or many in informal affirmative sentences use a lot a lot of lots and other quantifiers instead so for example how many ties do you own now a tie is something you know you can wear with a dress shirt I don't have a dress shirt today I have a Castlevania on Netflix shirt watch this show I want season 3 you can help me by watching it Castlevania on Netflix now I lost my place because I'm thinking about Castlevania and how great season 1 & 2 were so how many ties do you own I own a lot now you could say like I own many but it sounds very formal so if you want to sound natural informal change many in this context - you know a lot I own a lot ok she has plenty of experience plenty of you could say much experience is uncountable in this context like work experience so you could say she has much experience but it sounds very formal ok if you want to speak on the street with people I would recommend using a lot of experience lots of experience plenty of experience instead of much in this context now like I said you can use much and many in affirmative sentences but usually these are reserved for formal sentences formal contexts such as news reports or speeches or you know formal blog posts online so here I have two examples many problems have arisen since the election right it's an affirmative sentence many problems ok that's fine but you can tell it's a formal situation of formal context next much has been said about climate change mm-hmm it's more formal so if you want to use much and many in this way you can reserve it for an essay and just know the purpose of this board really is to let you know you can use much in many in affirmative context you just need to be careful if you want to be safe you know use so much so many no problem as much as many no problem too much too many no problem informal affirmative a okay however if you want to say you know with no so know as know to use a lot use a lot of for informal sentences in the affirmative and save those affirmative much or many sentences for formal contexts like essay writing like news reports and other similar formal situations alright are you still with me yes okay one more to go so to finish this video I want to talk about how to use much as an adverb now an adverb can modify a verb or an adjective or even another adverb so let's look at some sentences of what I mean by using much as an adverb so do you do much on weekends she's not doing much these days she's much older than you he played much better today so here we have do you do much right on weekends so you're modifying do right you're saying do you do okay do i do what do i do much you're modifying the verb do with the adverb much here she's not doing much so same idea as the first sentence except we have present continuous she's not doing much these days she's not doing a lot these days she's much older than you so you have older which is a comparative adjective you can put much before a comparative adjective so much older much taller much bigger okay much younger whatever the comparative adjective is he played much better today and again a comparative in this situation like adverb so he played better he played much better okay so finally in a formal context you can use much before certain verbs that Express preference or enjoyments or some kind of like alright so very very much sorry I was just reading the sentence so first sentence I very much appreciated your presence so you can modify much with very right or I much appreciated your presence the fact that you were there the fact that you were at let's imagine scenario maybe you had a family funeral and your friend came to this funeral and you said I very much appreciated I much appreciated your presence okay I much prefer I much prefer the sequel to the original so if you prefer the sequel of a movie to an original you can say I much prefer okay I much prefer the sequel to the original so you have much appreciate I much prefer we didn't much enjoy the experience okay so you have the verb enjoy as well that you can use much before so much prefer much enjoy much appreciate I very much liked the experience of making this video for you guys for example okay that's a lot to take in and if you want to test your understanding of the material we cover today about much and many using it in affirmative sentences in negative sentences in questions with count nouns on count nouns I know it's a lot but if you want to test your understanding make sure that you got it re-watch the video and then do the quiz on an vidcom while you're there please consider donating to the site and supporting what we do financially that would be great and much appreciate it ok so also don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel make sure you turn on notifications by clicking the bell and check me out on Facebook and Twitter where I you know try to answer your questions and also keep you updated on all the new videos and new content that I'm currently making until next time again I very much appreciate your views I very much appreciate your attention today until next time thanks for clicking bye

Channel: English with Alex · engVid English Classes

Views: 95,884

Rating: 4.9416614 out of 5

Keywords: much many, uncountable, non-count, tenses, grammar, vocabulary, learn English, English class, pronunciation, English, native speaker, ESL, English grammar, English vocabulary, engVid, phrasal verbs, TOEFL

Id: 60IbxyhRStQ

Length: 20min 23sec (1223 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 25 2019